


One Side Clouds, The Other Rain 翻雲覆雨

by yunyu



Series: Clouds and Rain universe [10]
Category: Shin Sangokumusou | Dynasty Warriors
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-28 10:07:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 35,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18754264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunyu/pseuds/yunyu
Summary: This is the sequel to Clouds and Rain, also available for your reading pleasure on AO3. If you didn't already read that, you can't possibly be interested in this, and to tag anything about it would spoil you; therefore there are no tags.Read Clouds and Rain if you like, if you get to the end and think "wow, that was great", this will be waiting for you with even more.





	1. 骨肉離散 (Family kept apart.)

**Author's Note:**

> 翻雲覆雨 refers to trickery producing clouds and rain by turning one's hand, and just like the plain Jane "clouds and rain", it is yet another euphemism for sexual antics.

骨肉離散： _gu rou li san  
bone / flesh / leave / disperse_  
 _"Family kept apart from each other."_

_216, two years after the capture of Luoyang, Xindu, Ji Province_

“My lord, she is now refusing water.”

Sima Yi managed to dismiss the servant before slamming his inkstick down onto his desk, cracking it. This was going too far.

He walked into the sumptuous quarters of his wife, and the contrast between the luxurious bed and the miserable woman within was sickening. She had initially thrown the trays and the food at the servants and the walls, but they had reported she was no longer even getting out of the bed.

“What do you want, Chunhua?” he said harshly. Tormenting and punishing him was her avocation, but she had crossed the line this time.

“You know what I want,” she said. Her voice was so weak, so unlike the woman who had ruled him with his own whip from the time she was a fifteen-year-old little slip of a girl. He had thought this was another one of her games, but this was different. “I want my boys.”

“I can’t get them back,” he said. “You know I can’t get them back.”

“Then let me die,” she said.

“Chunhua!” He lifted her by the shoulders and shook her. “I had no choice. The moment Cao Rui got so ill, I knew I would never be able to hold authority over Wei if he died. I had to take Zhuge Liang’s conditions. Our sons will be fine, but only so long as I do as Zhuge Liang wants. If I fail him, they will die. Do you understand me?”

“You’ve already failed,” she said harshly, her eyes full of hate. “All of this is your fault. You gave him my boys to save your own worthless skin. They’re going to die… far away from me where I can’t reach them. I can’t stand to be alive to hear that they’ve killed them.”

“You can’t give up. If you die, I won’t be able to continue. I need you, Chunhua. Everything I’ve ever done in my life I’ve accomplished because you forced me to.”

“I no longer believe in you,” she said. “I no longer believe in myself. How… how could I have been so blind… so weak… to let you fool me into putting my boys into that carriage…”

“I didn’t lie to you. I told you it was the only way for them to be safe, and it was. I don’t care whether you believe in me or yourself. Our sons are depending on us for their lives. We have to succeed for them.” Suddenly he exploded. “Do you want me to be as cruel as you? Do I need to tie you up and pour soup down your throat? I won’t let you abandon them, Chunhua. I’ll do it!”

He was gripping her wrists so tightly that he thought he might snap them. She sat stock still, then attempted to twist them, and he released his grip. She reached for the lukewarm bowl of soup on the tray, and for a moment he thought she was going to pick it up to dump it on him.

But then her hand stopped, shifted, and picked up the spoon.

———

_216, fall, Luoyang, imperial capital_

Zhuge Liang stared at the boy.

The boy stared back, neither smiling nor afraid.

“Do you know who I am?”

“Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei’s prime minister,” answered the boy.

“‘Lord Zhuge Liang, the emperor’s prime minister, my lord,’” Zhuge Liang corrected. “Try again.”

“Lord Zhuge Liang, the emperor’s prime minister, my lord,” the boy said flatly.

“Do you know why you are here?”

“To prevent my father from rebelling, my lord,” the boy said.

“You are seven years old?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“What does your mother call you?”

For the first time, the boy flinched, and then his face twisted, as if he was angry at having been made to show weakness. “A-Shi, my lord,” he said at last.

“A-Shi,” said Zhuge Liang, “you will be residing with me, my wife, and our baby. I will arrange for your education. I understand that you brought no belongings, but the necessary things will be obtained in due time. For now, follow me to your room.”

“Where is my brother, my lord?” Sima Shi demanded of Zhuge Liang’s back.

Zhuge Liang paused, but did not turn around. “One element of risk management,” he said, “is not to keep all of one’s resources in the same place.”

“You fear my father so much?”

Zhuge Liang turned slightly and looked expectantly at the boy.

“My lord,” Sima Shi added with frustration.

“I rate your father correctly,” Zhuge Liang said, “You resemble him very much. Are you ready to come to your room now, or do I need to have you carried?”

“I’ll walk, my lord.”

———

_216, fall, Jianye, capital of the kingdom of Wu_

When the carriage arrived in the palace of Jianye, the queen walked up to welcome their guest and hostage.

A servant opened the door, revealing its little passenger was fast asleep, curled up on the seat with his thumb in his mouth, with dried tear stains covering his cheeks.

“Oh, the poor darling,” Lianshi murmured. She considered for a moment letting him sleep, but decided that some things could not wait. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and shook him awake. “Sima Zhao? Sima Zhao, wake up please.”

The boy stirred and opened his sleepy eyes. He yanked his hand from his mouth in a hurry, struggling to wake up, and his eyes filled with tears again. “Who are you? Where is my mama?”

“You may call me Ayi. Your mother is safe with your father,” she soothed, “and your brother is with friends of ours. We’re going to take care of you for now. Are you hungry?”

The boy nodded emphatically.

She laughed and held out her hand. “What do you like to eat?”

He took her hand cautiously. “My Gege likes meat buns.”

“But what do _you_ like, dear?”

He took the big jump down from the carriage before she could help him. “Dunno. Usually just eat what Gege wants to eat.”

“Well, since your brother’s not here, you get to pick this time!” Lianshi said, walking with him towards the palace.

“I like noodles,” he ventured.

She smiled down at him. “I think we can find some for you, then.”

———

_217, Luoyang_

In the year that followed, Sima Shi spent most of his days studying, under the distracted watch of his foster-mother, Lady Huang.

She was the strangest person he had ever met, and though the months passed, he still did not know what to think of her. Nearly all she did, all day, every day, was work on her machines in her workshop. She had made a corner of it into a study nook for him. Randomly, she would huff, march over to him, and give him a sudden, bewildering lesson in some sort of mathematics. Strangely, he found his mathematical understanding progressing in leaps and bounds. As for the rest of his studies, she could correct his handwriting readily enough, and would answer his questions on literature and history, but her answers were not often helpful.

Lady Huang also had built what could only be described as a large cage for her toddler son, Zhuge Jing. He wasn’t kept in there all the time, of course, and sometimes his care was delegated to nannies, but she often placed him in there with toys as she worked.

At first he thought she was very cold and contemptuous of her foster-son, it didn’t take him long to realize that it was not much different from how she treated everyone—even her own son. His own mother was lavish with both physical affection and corporal punishment. Lady Huang did not seem to touch anyone if she could avoid it. When he once, experimentally, insulted her instruction during a lesson, she stared at him a moment, shrugged, and then got up and went back to her machines, completely ignoring him the rest of the day, and all of the following day, until he bowed, apologized, and asked her to teach him again.

He went through quite a few tutors in his other subjects because it was difficult to find one that was willing to work in Lady Huang’s workshop. Apparently, the ordinary person was terrified that the machines would explode, or do worse than that.

At least once a week, his foster-father taught him ethics and philosophy. Perhaps taught was too strong a word… _debated_ was more accurate. Zhuge Liang expressed no displeasure at Sima Shi’s resistance to his instruction. At first, of course, Sima Shi had merely been silent and withdrawn, but bit by bit, before he had even realized it, he was drawn out into expressing both his opinions and a portion of the rage and helplessness he felt inside at being separated from his mother and used as a blackmail against his father.

They also played go. Their first game, he was given a large handicap, and he trounced his opponent with savage joy.

His joy was somewhat lessened when, at the end of the match, Zhuge Liang calmly recounted every one of the dozens of errors Sima Shi had made and what he should have done instead.

And his heart was very much confused when Zhuge Liang had then smiled and said that Sima Shi was one of the finest go players he had ever opposed of any age, and that they would have to play regularly.

Flattery, it must be flattery… but why would Zhuge Liang use flattery on him?

———

_217, July, Jianye, Wu capital_

“Sit!”

The dog obediently sat.

“Lie down!”

The dog laid down.

“Now watch this,” said Sima Zhao to the young prince and princess. They didn’t actually need to be told this, as they were riveted already. “Hold!”

Sima Zhao laid down a big piece of sausage.

The dog looked at it, but didn’t move.

“Get it!”

Immediately, the dog surged forward to gobble up the meat.

“Hold!”

The dog, who had not quite reached the sausage, stopped. It whined a bit, but did not eat.

“Get it!”

This time the dog was able to grab and eat the sausage, and Sima Zhao ruffled at its back affectionately. “Good dog! Good dog!”

Prince Sun Yi clapped, while his sister Princess Sun Ruhu said, “More, Zhao Ge! (big brother Zhao)”

“Okay, up!”

The dog reared onto its back legs.

“Dance!”

The dog made a kind of awkward hobbling circle.

“Master Sima Zhao,” came a strict and strident woman’s voice that made them all jump, “do you know where you are?”

Sima Zhao hobbled around himself to turn and face the diminutive but nonetheless menacing General Zhang Xingcai. “In the nursery, my lady.”

“Do you know where you are supposed to be?”

He squirmed. “At my lessons, my lady.”

“And why is that animal in here?”

“Uh…” The boy scratched his hair awkwardly.

Princess Ruhu, who was hugging the animal, said, “Chong’r is so cute and so smart!”

General Zhang pressed her lips together and turned to the nursemaid hanging by the door. “Why was it necessary to fetch me? Can you not handle three small children by yourself?”

“I’m scared of dogs, my lady!”

“I see, you’re scared of dogs, so you abandoned the prince and the princess to, one presumes, be mauled by one? No, don’t defend yourself, I know the guard is there too, but that’s beside the point.” She turned back to the children. “Master Sima Zhao. You are not to bring that animal inside anymore. Now come with me.”

As the twins forlornly said goodbye, Sima Zhao and his dog both obediently trotted after General Zhang.

“Are you going to tell the king, my lady?” Sima Zhao asked nervously.

“The king has other things to worry about than your determination to remain an idiot,” she said bluntly, “and so do I.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, “it’s just it’s so hot and boring…”

“Learning is a year-round endeavour,” she said without looking down.

A guard was instructed to take Chong’r to the kennels, and then General Zhang marched Sima Zhao to the room where his tutor was fretting.

“Master Li, correct? Master Li. If you cannot even maintain control over the location of your charge, I do not know why the king is paying you to take charge of his mind. If such a situation occurs again, it will come to the king’s attention. Understood?”

The wretched Master Li bowed so low he nearly lost his balance. “I merely turned a moment—”

“Understood?” General Zhang talked over him.

Master Li did lose his balance. “U-understood, my lady,” he said as he struggled to stand back up.

General Zhang turned to Sima Zhao, who was staring at the floor. “Master Sima Zhao.”

The boy looked up timidly. General Zhang’s stern face softened a little.

“Don’t you wish to be able to write your mother a letter?”

His lip wobbled, but he managed to say, “Yes, my lady.”

General Zhang indicated the tutor with her head. “He can teach you, if you will only apply yourself. Don’t make trouble for yourself.”

Sima Zhao nodded, and she smiled at him before leaving.

———

_217, October, Liaodong peninsula, northeastern China_

The war against the Gongsun clan was going well, but the successes gave little pleasure to Sima Yi.

His wife was in Jicheng, the provincial capital. She never wrote to him, though he still wrote to her every week. Pathetic.

When he had finished subjugating the peninsula, he could go back to her, and she would have to see him. That was all that kept him going most days.

Pathetic as well.

“A letter from Jianye, my lord.”

Zhuge Liang never wrote him, though he had once received a one line verbal message—“Sima Shi is ill with a pox”—and four weeks later—“Sima Shi is fully recovered”. The Wu queen, however, wrote without fail monthly to inform him, in a hideously kind way, how lovely and wonderful his younger son was behaving as their prisoner.

However the handwriting when he broke the seal this time was different.

_To the Honourable Lord Sima Yi, governor of You province:_

_I greet you and hope this letter finds you well as the weather grows colder._

_Her majesty is unable to write to you as she recovers from childbirth, so I, Guan Yinping, humbly take up the brush in her place._

Unlike the queen’s letters, which were brief and merely reported on his son’s health and reiterated that he was a pleasure to have as a “guest”, Lady Guan—he recognized the name—rambled, and her handwriting was overly large and crude, the language far more vernacular than was considered acceptable for writing.

But this also meant that he felt like he was getting a clear picture for the first time of what his son’s life was really like.

Lady Guan liked his son and apparently spent time with him—odd and inexplicable. Why would the Wu chancellor’s wife…? He shook his head, there was no point in wondering.

She reported at length on the boy’s talent with and affection for horses, dogs, and hunting, then abruptly changed the subject to tell a confusing story that Sima Yi had to reread three times before he grasped that his son liked to play a game a game with the prince and princess of Wu, and with the chancellor of Wu’s daughter, in which Sima Zhao was their horse.

Charming child’s play, of course. Utterly innocent. But there was nonetheless something hard to bear at the notion of his son being ridden like an animal by southerners…

_The children will miss him so much when he goes… we all will, of course… I didn’t write the reason yet, apologies. I mean to say, because he has no success with his tutor and the queen is recovering from a difficult birth, the decision has been made to send him to live with Lady Qiao, the widow of Zhou Yu. She has four sons, the youngest one is only a year older than Sima Zhao, and they are very active and wonderful boys, well-behaved, intelligent, and educated, exactly what you would wish as models and companions for your son, I am sure! A more rural life will certainly suit Sima Zhao better, and he will be able to study with all their tutors, and will not find the work so dull and lonely. In October Lady Qiao will be coming to Jianye for the crown prince’s wedding banquet and when she leaves they will take Sima Zhao back with them. I will ask her elder sister Lady Qiao, the wife of Lord Gan Ning to write to you on how he does from now on, because she is a very conscientious and observant person and I am sure will do the job very well!_

_The Qiao sisters are both lovely women and have lots of motherhood experience between them so I know they will be very kind to your boy! But as I said he is such a sweet child that I don’t know how anyone could fail to be kind to him!_

Sima Yi let out a testy breath. This cloying sweetness was by far a worse insult than Zhuge Liang’s silence. At least Zhuge Liang made no pretence that his sons’ captivity was anything other than a hostile show of force.

The letter ended here according to a standard formula, but there was another page.

He turned to it.

It was signed 司馬昭, _Sima Zhao,_ in a child’s awkward hand. The rest of the page held only the character classically taught for demonstrating all eight strokes in a single character: 永 _yong_ , forever.

Sima Yi traced his fingers across the dried ink.

———

_217, October, Jianye_

The king’s oldest son Sun Deng was properly old, to Sima Zhao. He was, everyone had been chattering for some time, about to get married to some princess from the north. And one fall day suddenly, the already busy palace became an absolute frenzy of activity and new people. The wedding was coming very soon; the bride was here.

The boy had already been told that after the wedding was over that he would be leaving Jianye and everything he had finally become adjusted to, and sent away to another place—but not to his mother, nor to his brother. His new hosts were to be a noisy and thoughtless woman that he was told to call Ayi; her older sister, a kind and gentle-seeming lady like the queen, who he was to call Yima; and that woman’s husband, who was an absolutely savage looking man covered in tattoos yet nobody else seemed to notice. This man, with a terrifying laugh that made the bells at his waist shake, had told Sima Zhao to call him Laoye, grandfather, but also boss.

His new Ayi had four sons; the oldest one was practically a grown-up himself, fifteen years old, while the youngest was not much older than Sima Zhao at eight. All four were, as far as Sima Zhao could tell, perfect in every way: they were smart, they were engaging, they were athletic, they were skilled, they were musical, they were erudite, and they were almost unnaturally good-looking too.

It was going to be worse than how his own older brother Sima Shi always made him look bad in comparison. There were _four_ of them. Four of them! And while Sima Shi was a genius, people at least said that Sima Zhao was sweet and cute; they always said that. Sima Zhao wouldn’t even have that going for him against the universal perfections of the four Zhou boys.

In the hectic atmosphere it was easier than it had ever been to elude his tutor, and Sima Zhao didn’t hesitate to do so. What was the point in studying, when you were as stupid as he was?

He had gone to a corner of the palace gardens where pomegranates grew in hopes of stealing some fruit for himself, but he found there was a woman already there, a stranger to him. He stopped short and would have turned around, but she noticed him and smiled. “Hello there. Did you want some fruit? Go ahead.” She looked very sad despite her smile.

“Why are you sad?” he said, his child’s curiosity spilling out.

“I’m not really sad,” she said with a little laugh. “Don’t worry.”

“Are you missing someone?”

Her eyebrows lifted a bit. “You’re very clever! Yes, I am, a little boy like you, in fact.”

“I miss my family too,” Sima Zhao confessed, no longer feeling like eating anything. “Nobody will tell me when I’ll see them again.”

“Oh… you must be Sima Yi’s son…” Now the sadness in her face seemed all for him, which was hard to bear without crying, but he managed it. “I’ve met your brother, though we didn’t speak.”

“Do you know when I’ll get to see them again?”

She looked down at her lap, frowning.

“Why can’t anyone tell me?” he said, frustrated.

She looked back up at him, but then looked past him, and got up and began to kowtow.

Sima Zhao figured it must be the king or the queen, so he quickly turned and kowtowed as well.

It was neither, but rather another strange man, though he wore a hat with beads like the king. He looked exasperated. “Finally.”

“I’m sorry,” the woman said, with a cheeky smile. “Did I make you worry?”

“No, you exasperated me,” the man said, crossing his arms. “I can understand you wanting to evade your brother when he’s like this, but you could have at least warned me. Who’s the boy?”

“Sima Yi’s son,” she said, and Sima Zhao saw the man’s expression change to something more sober. “I wanted to be alone because I was missing A-Yao, though it’s only been a week since I’ve seen him. This boy wants to know why no one will tell him when he’ll see his family again. I don’t blame him, but I don’t know how to answer him, my lord.”

“I see,” said the man, looking at Sima Zhao, who was still on his knees and feeling very confused about all this. “It may not be for many years.”

Sima Zhao looked down at the ground. “But why? Are they still in danger? My lord… your majesty?” He added this last in some anxiety, looking up because he was not sure how he was supposed to address this man.

“It is a sacrifice you must make for the good of the land, child,” he said, without rebuking him, so the respect must have been good enough. “With you taken care of here, your father can concentrate on subduing the northeast. You should focus on studying hard, so that one day you can help him.”

Studying hard… studying hard… great, he was _never_ going to see them again… Sima Zhao laid his face down on the grass and cried without bothering to try to stop, what was the point anyway?

“Don’t look at me like that, Shangxiang,” he heard the man say over his sobs, “It has to be like this.”

Sima Zhao felt the woman’s hand on his shaking back. “It’s alright to cry,” she said, “It is very difficult and unfair. You will become a very strong man, bearing under this. If you were my son, I would be very proud of you.”

“We should go,” the man said, “we’re already late.”

The woman got up. “I’ll carry your love to your brother, at least, alright? I promise. Goodbye.”

Sima Zhao couldn’t speak to reply. They left, he supposed; he fell asleep in the grass at some point, and awoke with a start when it began to rain.

———

_217, December, Jicheng, capital of You province, northeastern China_

Zhang Chunhua remained indoors when word came that her husband had arrived. It was cold, bitterly cold; even indoors, bundled up, sitting on top of the heated bed with heavy curtains all around it, she was cold. She had no doubt that he would come to see her himself, anyway.

She heard the door to the room open.

“Chunhua,” she heard his irritated voice, and then the door shutting, “could you really not even bring yourself to temporarily pretend to be glad to see—”

He stopped, because he had opened the curtain and seen her; more particularly, even with all the layers, she was unmistakably, hugely pregnant.

Sima Yi’s face was red and chapped from the cold and wind; there were dark circles beneath his eyes. “Chunhua… you never wrote…?”

She looked down at herself.

“I’ve only been gone six months… you must have known before I left…”

She still said nothing.

Sima Yi climbed onto the bed and shut the curtain, then tugged his glove off and touched it to her chin, raising her eyes to his. “Why, Chunhua?”

“Even if it is born, this one will be taken from me too, won’t it?” she said bitterly.

He flinched as if she had struck him, but then said, “I have done everything they have asked of me… they have two hostages, they cannot require a third, not when they’ve been so careful to separate me from my kinsmen and from anyone else I could possibly conspire against them with.”

“I should never have let you touch me… why am I so weak towards you…”

His eyes widened, and then he actually smiled. “Oh, Chunhua…”

“Don’t make me hope,” she said, and then to her horror she began to cry as she had not allowed herself to cry since she realized she was pregnant.

“Oh, _Chunhua…_ ”

Her husband cradled her in his arms as if she was nothing more than an enormous baby herself until she wept herself into exhaustion and fell asleep.

———

_218, February, Luoyang_

“You have a letter from your father,” said Zhuge Liang at breakfast, holding it out, seal unbroken.

“What does it say, my lord?” Sima Shi said without making any movement to take it.

“It should say, but does not, that his son is an impertinent child,” Zhuge Liang said; but Sima Shi had known the chancellor long enough now to hear the latent affection in his dry tone.

“Why is that impertinent?” Lady Huang cut in, frowning.

Sima Shi smiled at his bowl of soup as Zhuge Liang explained, patiently, “Even though I obviously read any letter that the boy receives, it is impolitic for him to point that out.”

“But what makes it impolitic?”

“Because at a family meal it is unpleasant to be reminded that he is a hostage.”

“Oh, he is, isn’t he?” Lady Huang blinked, and looked at her foster-son. “Kongming is right, that is unpleasant. A-Shi, don’t bring that up anymore, please.”

Sima Shi put his spoon down so he could bow to his foster-mother. “As you wish, my lady.” He took the letter from Zhuge Liang and broke the seal.

Usually his father’s letters were nothing but trite formula, with no real sense of his father behind the empty words, which was part of why Sima Shi had asked for a summary rather than to read it himself. But this letter was different.

Lady Huang suddenly darted out her hand and snatched her toddler’s wooden bowl away from him, and when he began to wail, she said, “You want to throw it, but you may not.”

When he continued to scream, she added, “If you need to scream, you must leave the room to do so. It hurts my ears and I don’t like it.”

Zhuge Jing hopped down from his chair and ran from the room still screaming.

Zhuge Liang drank broth calmly. “Good news, I trust?”

Sima Shi controlled himself from giving his foster-father a cutting look, as he had just promised Lady Huang not to be unpleasant. “My mother has given birth to a daughter.”

“Oh? I didn’t know she was pregnant,” said Lady Huang.

“Neither did I, my lady,” said Sima Shi, and this time he did look at Zhuge Liang, though he tried his best to keep his face neutral.

“Of course I knew,” Zhuge Liang said calmly, “but it was not my place to tell you before your parents, A-Shi.”

“It is good news, isn’t it?” said Lady Huang, and when Sima Shi glanced at her, she was also staring intently at the prime minister, with a hint of anxiety on her face.

Zhuge Liang shifted his gaze to her and smiled. “Excellent news. Lady Zhang is a very devoted mother, and I am sure she is very happy.”

“We’re not taking the baby—you would have told me.”

Sima Shi went rigid in his chair. They couldn’t—they wouldn’t _dare_ —

“My dear, are you that anxious about the prospect of another child? Of course we are not.”

Lady Huang nodded, satisfied. “I love our son very much, but I confess I do not particularly enjoy babies. I would rather avoid more babies, especially when Xiao Jing is only just starting to stop being a baby.”

“My lord,” Sima Shi said, unable to relax, “my sister is going to stay with my mother, isn’t she?”

“I don’t expect otherwise,” said Zhuge Liang, and drank broth again.

Sima Shi did not entirely relax from this answer, and he was sure that he was not meant to. _Continue to play your role in this game,_ it meant, _because if the game changes, I will not hesitate to replace my pawns._

His foster-father liked him, and even wished him well. But this fragile peace and stability made his own life as nothing in comparison.

Now that he thought about it, Sima Shi discovered he was alright with that.

_Only an imbecile would ever be truly relaxed around Zhuge Liang, anyway… I’m sure, if you could, that’s what you’d tell me, father._

———

_221, July, near Lujiang, kingdom of Wu_

Sima Zhao hung precariously between the railings of the footbridge, his face turning red from the blood rushing to it, while Zhou Shen kept a firm grip on his legs.

Suddenly he thrust the trident in his hands down into the shallow water, and with a victorious cry, pulled it up. A large fish, impaled upon its prongs, wriggled and sprayed blood and water violently, but could not get free.

“Wow, that fish is fucking huge,” six-year-old Gan Yufei marvelled. The little girl looked as cute as her mouth was foul, dressed in a backless tank top and shorts with bunbun style pigtails. She had bells on anklets so that she jingled as she walked. “Good job Zhao Ge.”

“I think I’m done,” Sima Zhao said, pulling himself back up onto the bridge with the help of his foster-brother. “I’m getting dizzy. Here, take this to your dad, Yufei. Don’t—”

The girl took off.

“Don’t run with that!” both Sima Zhao and Zhou Shen yelled after her.

At the side of the stream, in the shade of some trees, Gan Ning had built up a fire to cook outdoors themselves, a favourite treat in the summer. Sima Zhao wiggled his toes on the wooden planks of the bridge and sighed as he watched the former pirate yell at and affectionately cuff his daughter for being so stupid as to run with a trident without even bothering to point it away from herself, then began to gut the fish.

Yufei brought the trident back, pointing it down and away from herself, and walking, with a pout on her adorable face.

Zhou Shen was fixing his own ponytail into a bun so the hair wouldn’t get in his face as he took a turn spearfishing.

“Baba said we only need one more, Shen Ge.”

“On it,” said Zhou Shen, leaning down himself with the trident in his hands while Sima Zhao gripped onto his legs.

“Oh, the sluts are coming,” said Yufei with mild interest, and Sima Zhao nearly lost his grip on Zhou Shen’s legs.

“The _what_ are coming?” demanded Zhou Shen’s voice from below the bridge, so apparently he also thought this was a new low for Yufei’s deplorable language.

Yufei pointed, and Sima Zhao followed the line of her finger to the opposite bank, where eighteen-year-old Zhou Shou was being advanced upon by a mob of peasant girls as he chopped wood for their fire. “Is that another word I shouldn’t say around mama or auntie? It’s what baba calls them.”

_“Yes,”_ Sima Zhao and Zhou Shen said together.

The eldest Zhou brother, Zhou Xun, had inherited his father’s title and lands and married upon turning twenty. Zhou Wen had sadly died during a plague outbreak just over a year earlier, meaning that Zhou Shou was now the only Zhou brother around of a reasonable age to attract the interest of local women, and attract them he did, without any effort or even volition. The young man, who by nature was rather reserved and private, held up the axe between his bare chest and the young women as if it were a shield or at least a screen.

“He’s engaged already, you thirsty bitches!” Gan Ning hollered across the water. “I need more wood, A-Shou!”

The bridge creaked as Zhou Shou, arms heavily laden, walked across. The thwarted maidens, chattering with angry faces, wandered back the direction they’d came from.

Zhou Shen thrust his trident down, snagged a fish, but didn’t quite manage to get it fully on the prongs, and it swam off. But his second try was luckier, and they had enough fish to stop.

Sima Zhao laid on the grass in the shade of the tree, staring up at the leaves gently swaying in the breeze, smelling the grilling fish and listening to Yufei playing ball with her younger brother Gan Yang. He let his eyes close. He heard the Qiao sisters arrive, laughing with each other as they brought more food to accompany the fish.

“Hey, A-Zhao, come have some food!” called Ayi.

“Let him sleep, there’ll be plenty whenever he wakes up,” Yima said.

It was a nice enough life. They were good people, they treated him like family; he even loved them…

But his heart ached. Even now, it ached.

And the worst part was, he was no longer positive about what he was missing. The older brother he remembered, the one in his memory who was so smart and strong and could do everything, was younger then than he was now. How much had five years changed them all, and how much had five years wiped away what he could remember? He could write his family letters, and read them, but he was old enough now to comprehend what was really going on. He was a hostage, just like so often occurred in his history books. And as a hostage, every letter was obviously being read. It could never contain any of their full and honest feelings.

But still. They were alive, somewhere, out there. And he was alive. And that meant there was a hope that someday they would be reunited.

———

_223, May, Luoyang_

“Would you do me a favour, A-Shi?”

Sima Shi paused mid-stroke of the essay he was writing to look up at the prime minister, who had appeared in his wife’s workshop unannounced. “My lord?”

“There is a certain gentleman… no, a man, decidedly a man. He plays go rather well, admittedly. But that is all he does. I wonder if you would do me the favour of humiliating him.” When Sima Shi didn’t immediately say anything, Zhuge Liang added, “It will be something of an introduction of you to public life, so bear that in mind.”

Sima Shi wanted nothing more than to get to such a position that he was a person in his own right, rather than simply a leash upon his father. “It will be my pleasure, my lord.”

Sima Shi followed his foster-father at a respectful distance through the streets of Luoyang. The prime minister set a leisurely pace, but before long they were at a kind of salon. From the dress of those around, Sima Shi could tell that this area was a gathering place for the literati. A guard attempted to speak to Sima Shi, but a single glance back from the prime minister made him vanish.

The crowds parted for the prime minister and Sima Shi had to close the distance in order to not be separated from him.

“Ah, my lord!” A man of thirty or so, seated at an empty table, stood and bowed low. “An honour, this is indeed a high honour!”

“Master Bai,” the prime minister said with a slight inclination of his head, “I wonder if I could trouble you for a game.” He beckoned, and Sima Shi stepped forward. “My foster son, Sima Shi, has some small amount of talent, but he has only had me as his opponent so far.”

Sima Shi saw the annoyance in the man’s face, though his smile barely twitched. “Of course, for you prime minister, it is my pleasure to be of service! What handicap do you suggest, my lord?”

Zhuge Liang smiled. “Oh, you need only give yourself one or two stones, I suppose.”

A sudden hush fell over the crowd, and the man’s smile became very strained. “You mean, I should only give the boy one or two stones, I’m sure, my lord.”

Zhuge Liang continued to smile. “How about you simply allow the boy to play black, in that case?”

The hush became a murmur.

Sima Shi discerned the words _Sima Yi’s son_ among the murmurs and knew that he absolutely could not lose.

And he did not.

He humiliated his opponent, just as his foster father had asked him to.

At the end, Zhuge Liang said, as softly as he always spoke, “I thank you, Master Bai, for the instructive opportunity. Come, A-Shi.”

The murmurs followed him, as he followed the prime minister.

_Sima Yi’s son._

_Sima Yi’s son._

_Sima Shi._

_Sima Yi’s son, Sima Shi._

———

_227, Shang commandery, Bing province_

Lord Guan Xing listened to Sima Shi’s opinions on the campaign against the latest northern invasions quietly, his face neutral.

“I agree,” he said at the end, “but I can only give you five thousand men. But I’ll make sure they are men you can depend on. I believe you will be able to accomplish more with quality than quantity, anyway.”

“But my lord,” protested Ouyang Jun, his fellow officer. The commander looked at him, but he fell into silence.

“Master Ouyang Jun, you had an objection?”

Ouyang Jun glanced from Sima Shi, kneeling beside him, to their commander. “My lord… I am sure the prime minister did not intend… Master Sima Shi cannot go on the frontlines!”

“Master Sima Shi is a man and an officer. Why is he here, if he cannot go on the frontlines? Sightseeing among the Xiongnu?” Having thus demolished Ouyang Jun, he turned back to Sima Shi. “I look forward to seeing the results of your command.”

“My lord,” Sima Shi said, clasping his hands as he bowed.

———

_228, Jianye_

When Sima Zhao was seventeen, he was informed he was going back to Jianye, this time ostensibly as a kind of apprentice to Lord Lu Xun, the prime minister.

He longed to take some more active position, but it had been broken down for him that this was not possible, as his older brother was even now fighting against the Xiongnu in the far north, and winning wide applause for the brilliance of his command and the value of his service to the emperor. But he was in danger, constant danger, and if he were to die, that would leave only Sima Zhao as an heir to, and leash on, his father. Even after all these years, there had been no sign of any thaw in the imperial trust for Sima Yi, despite, or maybe because of, how effectively he had governed You province.

So he was to become a diplomat. Awful. He could think of few things he would not rather do than spend his life trying to persuade people. He didn’t even know what he thought himself.

Since he had not been in Jianye for over ten years, he wasn’t counting on anyone to remember him much. But some did.

Sima Zhao’s eyes widened as two of the prettiest girls he had ever seen in his life ran towards him and Lord Lu Xun as the prime minister walked with him through the courts of Jianye. Their dresses were as beautiful as their faces. Though they were both gorgeous, his eye was drawn more to the shorter one, who had a magnificent head of hair that reached down to her knees.

The prime minister bowed, so he bowed even lower.

As he straightened up, expecting that these obviously noble girls were, for whatever reason, in urgent need of Lord Lu Xun, his eyes nearly fell out of his head as they instead were right up in his face.

“Zhao Ge!” exclaimed one while the other demanded, “You are Zhao Ge, aren’t you?”

“I don’t think he recognizes either of you, your highness,” said Lord Lu Xun, with some amusement.

_Your highness?_ “Princess Ruhu?” Sima Zhao said, then glancing at the other, “Ruofeng?!”

The girls laughed. Ruofeng clapped her hands. “Zhao Ge, we were so glad to hear you were coming back to Jianye! You’re so tall, I can’t believe it! Father said you won’t be living with us, but you’ll come over all the time, won’t you?”

Sima Zhao began to blush. “It’s been so long… I never thought you’d remember me… you were so little!”

“We cried and cried when you left!” Princess Ruhu said, and Ruofeng nodded. “You were our favourite, our very favourite favourite!”

“Whenever someone came to visit from Lujiang we always hoped they’d bring you but they never did,” added Ruofeng, “and Yufei told us all about how cool you will were and how fun. We were so jealous!”

“Girls,” said Lord Lu Xun, “I am trying to familiarize Master Sima Zhao with the palace.”

The girls pouted. “But when will we get to see him?”

“Your highness, he is here to work, not to play with you,” Lord Lu Xun said. “Run along, both of you.”

The girls sighed, but Ruofeng linked her elbow with Princess Ruhu, whispered something to her, and then they both laughed and left, walking backwards and then sideways, waving and calling goodbye.

Sima Zhao waved, feeling somewhat dazed.

“Master Sima Zhao,” said Lord Lu Xun, and Sima Zhao startled and felt intense embarrassment, which only increased with his next words, “you must learn the art of being less obvious with your face and eyes.”

Sima Zhao bowed and mentally begged his cheeks to return to a normal colour. “Forgive me, my lord.”

“I am not angry,” Lord Lu Xun said. “I am not an overprotective father, and I understand that you are a young man. But you must not let yourself look so obviously at the princess where her father can see you.”

“My lord,” Sima Zhao said miserably, “I know I have been assigned to you, but I am not suited to being a diplomat.”

Lord Lu Xun laughed. “Give yourself time. You are naturally charming, likeable, memorable, and charismatic, and you have a fine, attention-grabbing figure already despite your youth. These are things that cannot be taught. Whatever can be taught, I can teach you. I will start with one thing. You need to stop slouching. It doesn’t make you any less tall, and you’ll give yourself a humpback.”

Self-consciously, Sima Zhao stood up straight. It felt very unnatural.

“I would have loved to have had your height,” Lord Lu Xun chided him gently. “Don’t waste it. Now, the practice rooms are this way…”

———

_232, August, on the Yellow River_

Sima Nanyang, age fourteen, was a rather anxious girl. Her childhood had been spent under the overwhelming pressure of her mother’s fear that she would either die or be taken away. It was not to be wondered at that she was growing up into a diffident and biddable young woman.

Sima Yi had not interfered. Modesty and docility would be the best armour his daughter could have in this new world. Such a girl could be guaranteed of making a good, but not great, match.

She noticed her father’s eye and smiled, and he smiled back.

“I’d rather you not stand out here, even if with your parasol, until later in the day,” his wife said, coming up to them. “I know the breeze feels refreshing, but it is misleading, and I think the sun reflects off the water and makes you tan. I’ll let it pass for now, but you will understand as we go, darling, why I decided to leave so early. This way, we can set a very easy pace and take time to rest, if the exhaustion or seasickness should get to you, my dear. You’ve never been on a journey of this length before and I’m concerned about your health.”

“I feel fine,” said Nanyang, “but I’ll let you know, mother, if I feel at all ill.”

“Your brothers will certainly dote on you,” Zhang Chunhua said. “And I’m sure they’ll have friends, important friends, to whom they can introduce you. This coronation is an extremely important event, everyone will be there. You’ll need to look your best.”

“I’ll… I’ll try my best, mother.”

“We’ll all be together again… after so long… yet I’m so greedy…” Chunhua let out a light, sparkling laugh. “I’m already thinking about how to make it so we’ll never have to part.”

“Let’s see how things develop,” Sima Yi said guardedly. “This coronation of Prince Liu Da as crown prince will probably put the emperor into a confident and generous mood, and with how our sons have demonstrated their utility in the last few years, I can see that they might allow us to take one of them back with us. But not both.”

“If our children married very well, it would be possible,” Chunhua countered, and Sima Yi narrowed his eyes at her.

“What makes you think they’ll be able to marry at all so soon, much less marry well?” he said.

Chunhua fanned herself. “As you so wisely said, my lord. Let’s see how things develop.”


	2. 忍辱求全 (Endure dishonour for the sake of unity.)

忍辱求全： _ren ru qiu quan_  
endure / disgrace / plead for / whole  
"To endure dishonour for the sake of unity or for the common good."

_232, end of August, Jianye_

Lianshi sat up in bed and slowly reached an arm out for her robe, only to find her other wrist suddenly caught and her body pulled back into the bed.

“My lord!” she said, equal parts amused and exasperated. “Do you know what time it is?”

“I know what it’s time for,” Sun Quan growled, pulling the blankets off so he could press her naked body against his.

“You are insatiable! How can you even think of doing it again when we’ve done it once this morning _and_ last night? I thought you had fallen back to sleep! Can you even perform yet?!”

“No,” he admitted with a grin, and suddenly despite the white flecking his reddish hair and beard he looked positively boyish. “That’s why you have to stay and wait for my body to catch up with my desire.”

She laughed, then said more seriously, “My lord, what is this all about? I don’t even remember when we were first wed that you attempted to take me three times in such quick succession. Twice, yes, but three? What’s gotten into you?”

“It’s what I want to get into you,” he said, stroking the stretch marks on her abdomen. When they had appeared, bright red and angry-looking, during her first pregnancy, he had been so horrified that she literally had to cling to him to keep him from rushing from the bed in the middle of the night to summon the doctor; he was so convinced that something was horribly wrong. Once they had faded into scars, however, he had become strangely fond of them, calling them her ‘tiger stripes.’ “I want to make you pregnant again.”

“As much as I enjoyed giving you more children, my lord, I fear those days might be behind us,” she said, and added, “Also, it really is getting very late this morning and I’m hungry.”

He sighed. “You can be too practical, sometimes, you know.”

Although her husband had let her go, Lianshi ignored the rumbling in her stomach and regarded his sad face with concern. “You’re sure that’s all it is, my lord? I thought… it might be that you were worried about missing me when I leave.”

He looked a bit guilty. “It’s kind of the same thing. If you were pregnant, I could keep you here and Liu Bei couldn’t be offended.”

She smiled at him. “I am flattered, my lord, but it will be less than two months, and you know how important it is. If you are not going, I don’t know else but me can keep the twins in check.”

———

“Here, let me help you with that,” said Sima Zhao, reaching for the bag before Lu Ruofeng could get to it. He grabbed the handle with one hand and pulled, but released it and stepped back for a minute, puzzled, when it hardly budged.

“Thanks but I got it,” she told him with a smile, quickly hefting the bag onto her shoulder and, with a grunt, hoisting it into the baggage carriage.

Her friend scratched his head with his hand to hide his embarrassment. “I hope you don’t do that in Luoyang.”

“Why not?”

“Boys won’t like it,” answered Princess Sun Ruhu for him, and when he blushed, added, “He’s jealous,” making him flush even more.

“If he was jealous, why would he be telling her how to make herself appealing?” said her twin brother Prince Sun Yi with a drawl. He was leaning against a tree and twirling a leaf in his hands.

His sister gave him a dirty look. “At least he knows something about being appealing. As lazy as he is, he’s not sitting around while a woman does all the work.”

He shrugged. “If you all would just be patient, the servants will do all of that. I assume Ruofeng is doing it for her own amusement.”

“I just don’t see the point in waiting around,” said the girl, sounding more like the daughter of Gan Ning than Lu Xun.

A commotion approaching indicated the servants were coming, but when it arrived most of the commotion was actually coming from the fourteen-year-old girl chasing after General Zhang Xingcai.

“Because there is nothing for you in Luoyang,” Lady Zhang said to her daughter, then started ordering the servants into efficient loading of the carriages.

“Nothing for me in Luoyang!” sputtered Zhou Tianhua. “The people! The music! The sights!”

“She can have my seat,” Prince Sun Yi volunteered, unhelpfully.

Lady Zhang gave him a look, and since she was a regular tutor of his in swordplay, he actually said sheepishly, “Sorry. But really, Tianhua, you should be glad you don’t have go to Luoyang. It’s dull, it’s duller than Jianye even. Plus the people are stuck up jerks who think we’re all nothing but hicks, at best.”

“That’s not true,” said Lady Zhang.

“It’s kind of true,” said Lu Ruofeng. “Don’t look at me like that, Tangyi (Auntie). I have to say that I prefer it when the people we actually want to see come here, instead of us having to go there. His highness is right that the general opinion in Luoyang is that the south is wild and inferior.”

“If you feel the people of the imperial capital look down on us, that just means you need to demonstrate that you are all heirs the south can be proud of. And all the more reason why _you_ are _not_ going, Tianhua. End of discussion.”

“Yes, mother,” the angry girl said with as much bitterness as she dared, and left.

“Isn’t she a bit young to be interested in the real reason you’re hauling us all to the imperial capital?” said Princess Ruhu when Tianhua was gone.

“And I suppose you’re going to tell me what that ‘real reason’ is?” said Lady Zhang, and then added to a servant. “Be more careful handling that chest, it’s fragile.”

“Marriage,” the princess said. “I know my mother and my aunt are secretly hoping I’ll finally fall in love with Liu Da. That _brat._ ”

“Liu Da is not a brat,” Prince Sun Yi leapt to the defence of his cousin.

“You don’t know he’s a brat because you’re a brat yourself,” his sister retorted.

“The emperor has invited his beloved vassal the king of Wu to celebrate with him the coronation of the new crown prince. As his majesty himself cannot go, he has organized this delegation to represent the kingdom. Perhaps _foolishly,_ your parents and I believed that you had all grown old enough to appreciate your duty to both the kingdom and the empire. However, it’s too late to change things around now. Where is Lady Gan? She should be here by now.”

“Probably hiding,” said Prince Sun Yi. “I bet she doesn’t want to go either.”

“Here she comes, with my mother and Master Zhou Shen,” said Princess Ruhu.

Queen Lianshi looked as regal as ever. Zhou Shen, the youngest son of Zhou Yu who had been born when his father when on his deathbed, was an exceptionally handsome young man of twenty-two whom Sun Quan was recommending to take up an official position in the capital. Between them was a guilty-looking youth in the soaking wet clothing of a low level sailor.

“Is there time for Lady Gan to change?” Lianshi said calmly, while Zhou Shen smirked at his seventeen-year-old cousin, who was rubbing her neck and squirming with embarrassment.

“What was she doing?! No, you know what, I don’t want to know. If it wasn’t for the water, I’d say no, but she’ll ruin everyone else’s clothing like that and probably get sick besides. Ruofeng, will you go with her?”

“What were you trying to do, Yuhui?” said Ruofeng as she followed Lady Gan.

“Steal a boat,” she admitted. “Just a little one!”

Ruofeng stared at her with wide eyes. “Really?”

She sighed. “Yeah. I didn’t think my father would capsize it just to stop me! Sure, I knew he’d run me down eventually, but I figured by the time he managed to get me you all would have left. Then I wouldn’t have to go.”

“Was he very angry?”

“No, he laughed and said it was a good plan. My mother’s probably going to kill me the next time I see her though.”

“Why don’t you want to go?”

“Because it’ll mean doing nothing but shitty girl stuff,” Yuhui grumbled. “I’ve only been to Luoyang once but it was the worst two weeks of my life, and that was when I was a lot younger, plus I had my dad with me. This is gonna suck ass.”

Ruofeng was used to Yuhui’s foul mouth. “Surely my aunt Zhang will understand where you’re coming from?”

“She says tough shit, suck it up. Well, she doesn’t say it like that, but that’s what she means. Why did I have to get my mother’s fucking good looks?” Yuhui rubbed her hair with a towel savagely. “I know exactly what they’re all thinking. If I would only control my tongue, I could have any man in Luoyang. And that’s good for Wu. What bullshit.” She started getting dressed. “But why are they making you go, Ruofeng? We all know you’re going to marry Zhao Ge sooner or later.”

Ruofeng blushed and waved her hands. “Zhao Ge is just my friend.”

“That’s not what his eyes say.” Yuhui waggled her eyebrows suggestively as she tied an inner sash. “Is he coming, by the way?”

“Yes, he’s very excited about it,” Ruofeng said. “He hasn’t seen his brother or parents since he was five years old. He writes to them, of course.”

“Ah, now I understand, you’re going to meet your in-laws!”

———

“We are never going to leave,” Xingcai vented to her husband as she ate the meal he had brought her. After the long delay caused by Lady Gan, the king had gotten wind that they were still there, and demanded another meal with his queen. All the rest of them had scattered, and only Lady Zhang was stubbornly remaining by the carriages.

Zhou Tai made an amused noise.

“I think I am _genuinely_ the only one who actually wants to go,” she said, grabbing a piece of dog meat with her chopsticks with unnecessary viciousness.

“But you don’t,” he countered with maddening accuracy.

“Alright, even I don’t,” she snapped, “but at least I acknowledge that it’s necessary and it’s not as if it’s going to be torture! There will be a lot of tedious work but there will also be pleasant aspects… seeing relatives we don’t get to see often enough…”

“Ah.” After a minute or so of silent eating, Zhou Tai added, “There are two who want to go.”

“Yinping and Sima Zhao, I suppose,” she said.

“Sima Zhao, yes, but I suspect Lady Guan’s feelings are the same as yours,” Zhou Tai said. “I meant Tianhua.”

Xingcai paused in chewing, narrowed her eyes at him, chewed again and swallowed. “You think I should take her?”

“She’s never been like you.”

Xingcai stared at her food and considered his simple words, which contained as much meaning as an entire lengthy speech from another man. Her husband was right. Her daughter—God only knew how or why—was an extremely feminine, charming, engaging, musical, social, and delightful _young lady._ One whose dreams resembled her mother’s long ago nightmares. She was only fourteen but she wanted nothing more than to get married and be a court lady; to spend her days playing the pipa or the ocarina, intriguing, and presiding over a household.

“It was cruel when I implied that I wasn’t taking her because she wouldn’t represent the kingdom well,” Xingcai admitted to the rice.

Zhou Tai made an affirmative noise.

“And it wasn’t true.”

Another affirmative noise.

Xingcai sighed. “She’s so young, but she’s already so… pretty, and elegantly behaved too. I’m afraid she really will catch some young man’s eye and that it’ll be diplomatically impossible to delay the match.”

“As her father,” said Zhou Tai, “I will make sure that doesn’t happen. You can plead your husband’s tyranny.”

Xingcai laughed. “You have ruled me more than I thought I would like, but I appreciate how you do it.”

Zhou Tai kissed his wife and got up. “I’ll help her pack.”

———

_232, early September, Luoyang_

Sima Shi and Zhuge Jing were playing go in a courtyard in the imperial gardens.

They played silently, the only noise the sound of birds, the water running gently over stones in the artificial river, and the wind rustling through branches. Zhuge Jing did frequently have his left hand hovering in the air and flapping silently back and forth, but Sima Shi was long used to this habit from his foster brother and was not distracted by it.

Eventually, Sima Shi murmured, “That’s done it, I think.”

Sixteen-year-old Zhuge Jing bowed to humbly acknowledge his own victory.

“That makes… five times in a row you have beaten me? I think it is time for your handicap to be lessened.”

Zhuge Jing sighed, but smiled as well. “You just hate to lose, Shi Ge (brother Shi).”

Sima Shi smirked. “When we play with no handicaps, then we’ll see who hates to lose.”

Zhuge Jing glanced at his own flapping hand, stilled it, and self-consciously turned it into a stretch. “Does your real brother play go?”

Sima Shi began putting the pieces away. “I don’t know. My father plays go… I remember that.”

“Oh, hello!” Zhuge Jing called, waving. Sima Shi turned his head and saw that the Prince Liu Da, Zhang Bao’s son Zhang Pu, both age eighteen, and Xu Shu’s son Xu Zhan, age seventeen, were walking down the path towards them. “They’re not here yet, are they?”

_‘They’_ was the expected grand party of visitors from Wu, including not only Sima Shi’s younger brother, but also three very eligible maidens: Sun Quan’s daughter Princess Ruhu, Lu Xun’s daughter Lu Ruofeng, and Gan Ning’s daughter Gan Yuhui. All three not only came with wealth and high connection but, at least from rumour, great beauty and spirit as well. Princess Ruhu had come to Luoyang for visits many times, though the last visit had been over a year prior, but the other two had not been to Luoyang since they were children.

Sima Shi knew better than to think that he could aspire to the hand of any of the three, but it would be interesting to see how the visit played out as an observer regardless. It was widely speculated that both sets of parents favoured a match between Prince Liu Da and Princess Ruhu, and just as widely noted that the two had never gotten along even as children. He himself found the Wu princess to be extremely amusing, and was looking forward to both verbally fencing with her himself and watching her tear apart other, lesser men.

“Nah,” said Zhang Pu, hopping onto the railing of the pavilion. “They won’t be here for two more weeks at the earliest, y’know. Funnier news than that. My fucking idiot cousin Xiahou Xuan referred to Lady Li as a whore and my uncle heard about it.”

The uncle in question, Lord Guan Xing, was Lady Li’s husband. “Has the body been found yet?” Sima Shi inquired.

The others snickered, although it wasn’t really a joke, as Zhang Pu’s reply made clear. “Yeah,” answered Zhang Pu. “No tongue, as usual.”

“He put my father in a real mess,” said the prince, leaning against a pillar. “The Cao and the Xiahou get touchy easily, of course, and you can’t kill a mouthy kid just for being a mouthy kid.”

“Wasn’t Xiahou Xuan nineteen?” Sima Shi said. “That’s a little old for a kid. I knew better than to say such a thing by the time I was twelve.”

“Well, he was drunk,” said Zhang Pu. “He was never going to end well, that one. But still. I don’t know if my uncle should have been the one to kill him.”

“There isn’t actually any proof it was Lord Guan Xing,” said Xu Zhan.

“Come on, everyone knows it was him,” said the prince.

“Of course everyone knows it. If he didn’t want it known, he wouldn’t have had the body found. But there’s no _proof,_ and when the emperor asks him if he did it, he’ll deny it. He’ll have an alibi, probably from your father,” he said, indicating Zhang Pu. “He’ll smile at the Xiahou and say how unfortunate it is. The emperor will be eager to let it go and the Xiahou won’t dare to push it. That’s how he’s going to get out of it. And if it happens again, he will get out of it again. That’s why only a fool with a death wish would breathe a word against Lady Li.” Xu Zhan always was very focused on practicalities.

“Are you looking forward to your future wife’s arrival, my lord?” said Sima Shi, wording the question vaguely so as to see who would take the bait and in what way.

Prince Liu Da rose to it immediately. “I hope you’re not talking about Ruhu! She’s the bitchiest bitch I’ve ever met! When I was in Jianye last year, she threw a glass of wine in my face.”

“She threw the wine in your face because you had just played a prank on her,” Zhang Pu pointed out. “Remember, I was there too.”

“But my prank was funny! Wine in your eyes stings! And it stained my clothes and my mother was furious at me.”

“Well, she’s either going to marry you or Master Zhang Pu,” said Xu Zhan. “You can’t imagine that the king of Wu will settle for anyone lower ranked than a future duke for her.”

“My father is a duke,” Zhuge Jing pointed out, crossing his arms defensively.

“You’re almost two years younger than she is, and more importantly the king of Wu hates your father. As for Lord Guan Xing’s sons, they’re all even younger. And don’t bother bringing up any other technical dukes like Confucius’s heir or the vestigial Cao clan nobility. If it’s not the prince, then it’s Zhang Pu, no question.”

The prince and Zhang Pu looked at each other. This had clearly not occurred to the two of them.

“Well, you’re going to have to do it,” Prince Liu Da said.

“You’re older and more important, Tangge (older male paternal cousin).”

“As future emperor I absolutely refuse to make such a picky, grumpy, fight-picking, arrogant, bossy little she-devil empress,” Prince Liu Da said.

Girlish laughter was heard from above, and everyone looked up, startled.

A little face poked over the side of the pavilion roof. “Oh, you’re going to be in so much trouble when I tell Biaojie (older female maternal cousin) what you said!”

It was Prince Liu Da’s younger sister, thirteen year old Princess Liu Yitao _._

Everyone talked at once. “You little brat!” “How did you get up there?!” “How come we didn’t see you?” “Your highness, come down from there, you’ll get hurt.” As for Sima Shi, he simply laughed.

She stuck her tongue out at them all and the head vanished back up. The young men scrambled outside the pavilion and she was nowhere to be seen, until her head popped up from within the little tower atop the roof. “There’s birds’ nests in here and everything, it’s really cool.”

“You tell Ruhu whatever you want, Taotao,” Liu Da said defiantly. “I don’t care if she knows what I think.”

“Okay then, I’d get bored waiting for them to get here to tell someone anyway.” She clambered back out of the little tower, bringing the hook and rope she had used to climb up with her. “I’ll tell mama about it tonight at dinner instead.”

“Then I’ll tell father what _really_ happened to that vase!”

“The vase wasn’t me, it was A-Mi. It was an accident, she tripped. You wouldn’t tell on A-Mi, would you?”

Liu Da crossed his arms in frustration. A-Mi was their youngest sibling and everybody’s darling, as sweet as the honey that was her nickname. “Why do you want to get me into trouble anyway?”

“I already said, I’m bored. Who wants to catch me?”

“Your highness, that’s quite a far drop,” said Xu Zhan cautiously.

“I’ll just jump down to the ground then.”

“Oh no you won’t! If you get hurt I’m the one who’ll get in trouble. I’ll catch you,” Liu Da said testily.

Liu Yitao tossed her coiled up rope and hook without warning to Zhang Pu, who nearly fumbled but managed not to drop it, and jumped lightly into her big brother’s arms.

Her brother promptly tightened his grip and carried her, shrieking “Gege! _Gege put me down right now!”_ the entire time, over to the nearest bridge, where he efficiently pried her fingers from him and tossed her over the railing.

“Okay, go ahead and get me in trouble now, you little devil,” he said, as she surfaced, stood up on tiptoe (it still went up to her shoulders), wiped the pond weed out of her face, and began wading to shore, trembling with rage, while ducks quacked at this unexpected intruder. “At least I’ve gotten my revenge in advance!” With that, the soon-to-be crown prince stalked off.

“The empire is fucked,” said Zhang Pu. Zhuge Jing snickered, while Xu Zhan and Sima Shi walked over to the pond to give Princess Yitao a hand climbing out of the pond.

———

Liu Da stared at his hands. The knuckles were white from the tension in them as he silently took his father’s scolding.

“And this is the behaviour you exhibit in front of your friends—the very young men whose loyalty and trust in your morality, your good judgment, you will rely upon for decades. This is the face of yourself you show to them?”

“I was wrong, father,” Liu Da said quietly.

Liu Bei was not mollified. “You knew it was wrong before you even touched her, didn’t you? So what motivated you to make such a display? Did you think you’d escape punishment with our guests arriving so soon?”

Liu Da breathed in and out. “I didn’t think, father.”

“You didn’t _think._ This is the _boy_ I am supposed to name my crown prince?” Liu Bei stared at his son. “Look me in the eyes.”

The kneeling young man slowly raised his gaze from his hands to his father’s furious eyes.

“I have other sons,” Liu Bei said. “It’s not too late for me to cancel your coronation as crown prince. Even if you were crown prince, until I am dead I can name someone else as my successor at any time. It will shame our family, but better that our family should feel shame than that the people should suffer from a thoughtless, self-willed, impulsive ruler.”

“I erred and have no excuse for my error. I will take the punishment that you deem appropriate, father.”

Liu Bei stared at him for a few moments. “Do you not want to succeed me?”

“I do want to.”

“Then tell me the punishment that will make you act like it.”

Liu Da’s eyes widened. “I…”

Liu Bei waited.

“I… I’ll marry Ruhu, like you and my mother want.”

Now it was Liu Bei’s turn to be taken aback.

“If I marry Ruhu,” Liu Da said, his restrained misery nonetheless evident in his tone, “she will, certainly, inform me whenever I make the slightest error. And it is… an excellent match for the empire.”

Liu Bei had recovered from the shock, but this unexpected volunteering to take up what Liu Bei knew to be his son’s nightmare scenario in choice of bride had gone far beyond what he had expected. It did show a certain determination to self-sacrifice, at least. “You give your word that if all other arrangements are suitable, if I decide it best, you will marry her?”

“Yes, father.”

“I will hold you to that. You can go.”

———

“Da Ge, are you a complete idiot?! Why did you tell father what you did?” demanded Taotao, running her older brother down not far outside their father’s audience chamber.

“Because a man should own up to his mistakes instead of waiting for someone else to tell on him. Can you shut up for once? I need to apologize to you and I can’t when you’re running your mouth.”

“Jackass! I never would have ratted you out to father! I was only ever going to tell Mama! Now Er Ge is panicking that father is going to pick him to be crown prince instead.” Their brother Liu Tong, though an intelligent and good-natured young man, was also painfully shy and wanted nothing more from life than to be allowed to study and write history. “How did father punish you? He’s not really going to cancel the coronation, is he?”

Liu Da could see that his little sister was genuinely concerned for him, which made his apology much more sincere than it would have been otherwise. “He’s not going to cancel the coronation, though he could and he wouldn’t be going too far. I’m way too old to be resorting to that kind of thing to deal with you; it reflects very badly on my judgment. You’re my little sister and I was too harsh. I’m sorry.”

Taotao waved the apology away impatiently. “But what _did_ he do, then?”

“He asked me how I should be punished, and I said I would marry Ruhu.”

His little sister was agape with horror.

“It was probably going to happen eventually anyway,” Liu Da said bitterly.

“They can’t really make you do that, can they?! You’ll drive each other mad!” Taotao said in a hushed voice.

“If it’s what’s best for the land then I’ll just have to go mad then.” Liu Da sighed, then said, “Taotao, let it go, alright? You’d better go and wash your hair, I can still see duckweed in it.”

Taotao exclaimed and ran off picking at her head.

———

Liu Bei heard every word spoken between his son and his daughter, using his chancellor’s wife’s ingenious spy equipment network throughout this part of the palace. He turned it off, sighed, and turned to that enigmatic man. “What do you think?”

“Let him sweat about it.” Zhuge Liang walked with a cane, but skeptics murmured that he only did so in an attempt to appear more ancient and sagely. “It is the sweating that will be the rectification. He has brought back to the forefront of his mind that to be emperor will inevitably require self-denial. That is excellent.”

Liu Bei sighed. “We love our children and wish to spare them suffering… but then they become soft and entitled, not knowing what it is they have been spared…”

The empress of China, carelessly sitting sideways upon her throne, stretched. “I don’t see why you came down on him _that_ hard. The day my father died, my Er Ge did something to my Da Ge at breakfast—I dunno what, I missed that part—and my Da Ge retaliated by holding him by his ankles over a well until he apologized. My father laughed and laughed! I’m sure it never crossed his mind for a moment to choose another successor.”

“The famous vigour of the south,” murmured Zhuge Liang.

Over his chancellor’s back, Liu Bei saw his wife make a highly unflattering imitation of the prime minister’s smug grin and ever-present fan, and couldn’t help snickering. When Zhuge Liang glanced back, the empress was studying her nails.

“What do you think of the match now, Shangxiang?”

“I think A-Yao only dislikes her because he resents the pressure to like her,” she said, referring to her son by his milk name. “I should have expected that, so this is really my fault for encouraging the match. He takes after me, I never wanted anybody I was supposed to like either. Part of the reason why my brothers could never marry me off.”

“Aha,” Liu Bei said, “so my good luck is all because you weren’t supposed to like me?”

“Absolutely nobody wanted me to like you, my lord,” said Shangxiang, smiling in a very meaningful way at Zhuge Liang.

“Will the empress have forgiven my misjudgment in another twenty years, do you think, your majesty?” said Zhuge Liang, unperturbed.

“Forgiven is not forgotten, chancellor,” Shangxiang said with a smirk. “But in any case. Lianshi tried to warn me long ago how it would be, and I have _tried_ not to push A-Yao these past few years, but I think it’s too late. Plus, you know, Ruhu dislikes him back now just as strongly. She has far too much pride to like anyone who doesn’t like her. And rightly so! But it’s a shame! She would be a magnificent empress, even better than me.”

Zhuge Liang fanned himself. “There are other maidens in the empire. In time, I am sure one can be found who not only meets but exceeds the requirements—especially as the prince is only eighteen. In the meantime, let us see how Prince Liu Da acts with his guests—all of them.”

———

_232, early September, on the Yin River_

“Well, I’m glad Lady Zhang let her daughter come,” Sima Zhao said, reclining on the deck of the boat. “This is nice, isn’t it?”

Further up the deck, Zhou Tianhua was playing duets with Zhou Shen, her on the pipa, him on the flute. Sima Zhao was not musical at all, but he could recognize at least that they made lovely music, which went well with the sunshine and the breeze.

Gan Yufei had taken up an identical posture on the deck, arms folded behind her head, legs crossed. “Yeah, it’s bitchin’,” she said.

Lu Ruofeng, who was sitting on a chair between the two of them, laughed. “Yufei, what are you going to do when we get to Luoyang?”

“Tell ‘em all to fuck off,” she answered promptly, “and hope that buys me a few more years.”

“You don’t want to marry anyone?”

“Not anyone I’ve met so far,” she grumbled. “Why does everyone assume I’ve got to be wild to get married just because I’ve got tits? If I’ve got to marry, I sure don’t want to marry anyone from up north. I asked Shen Ge if he’d marry me and he said he’d rather not.”

“Your cousin Zhou Shen? Really?”

“Well, he wouldn’t try to change me, at least, but he said that wasn’t all there was to it, and he had a point, I guess. Besides, he’s a diplomat and I’m not suited for a diplomat’s wife.” Yufei sighed. “I don’t fancy him or anything but at least he’s not gross or weird like most of the men I’ve met other than him. I guess you’re not gross either, Zhao Ge.”

Sima Zhao laughed. “Thanks. I’m offended you never asked me to marry you.”

“Ohoho,” Yufei laughed, and suddenly sat up, “ _you’re_ going to tease me about marriage, Zhao Ge? You’ve just brought down the wrath of hell upon yourself, dumbfuck.”

“I’m not teasing you!” Sima Zhao said in a panic.

“Really? You’re not? You can’t think of one teeny, pretty little reason why I wouldn’t have even bothered to ask you if you’d marry me?”

“It was just a joke! At _my_ expense, not yours!” He had sat up now as well, and the two of them were making faces at each other from behind Ruofeng’s chair, Yufei’s mirthful, Sima Zhao’s pleading.

“Maybe you _should_ go for a weird guy, Yufei,” said Ruofeng, obliviously staring out at the river. “You’re pretty weird too, after all, no offence.”

“Hm,” said Yufei, making a gesture to communicate _you’re off the hook this time_ , to Sima Zhao as she reclined again, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Some weirdo who doesn’t mind me doing what I want, and I let him do what he wants. That could work. Okay. A freak it is.”

“Oh, poor Ruhu,” Ruofeng said, getting up. “I’m going to see if I can take her mind off of things.”

The princess had inherited her mother’s motion sickness and had come into view gripping along the railing, looking very ill-at-ease indeed.

Yufei reached out and punched Sima Zhao’s shoulder lightly, but her version of lightly was still hard enough to smart.

“Ow,” he said.

“You’re running out of time to make a move on her. You should have gotten that sorted before we left Jianye, idiot,” she said in a strident whisper. “What the hell do you think you’re going to do if some big shot in Luoyang gets ideas about her?”

“Ruofeng doesn’t feel that way about me,” Sima Zhao whispered back. “Drop it.”

“Because she’s a bigger moron than you!” Yufei hissed. “If you would _even once—”_

“I said drop it,” he said flatly, and she sighed but stopped talking.

———

_232, early September, Luoyang_

“Master Sima Shi?” a messenger announced, and he looked up from the memorial Lord Guan Xing had asked him to revise. “Lord Sima Yi and his family have arrived.”

Sima Shi stared for a moment. “Are they coming here? Do I need to go there? Which gate did they enter by?”

“They should be coming here, sir; they came by the grand east gate.”

Sima Shi only had a few servants, but he called those he had to get his modest guest accommodations prepared for him and his sister, and to make his own master bedroom ready for his parents. His mind was in a whirl. He had not expected his family to arrive for another week. Now he would be seeing them in a matter of minutes.

His _family_. The father and mother he had not seen for over fifteen years; the younger sister he had never even met.

What would he say? How would they look? What would they think of him—a man of twenty-three instead of a boy of seven?

And then they were there.

He couldn’t take his eyes off them as he bowed. “Welcome, father and mother… I hope your journey was—”

“My son!” his mother cried, and all pretence of dignity was abandoned. Sima Shi was peripherally aware that his father closed the door of the hall behind them as his mother threw himself into his arms. He was looking _down_ at her, at the terror, joy, and goddess of all his earliest memories. Had she only ever been this size?

“You’ve become such a handsome man,” she marvelled, cradling his face in her hands. “Husband, look, he’s taller than you!”

His father’s smile was tired. “A little, I think, Chunhua.”

“Nanyang, come and meet your brother!”

The sister he had gotten to know through letters was a contemplative and imaginative soul, quite unusual among the deadly pragmatics of the extant Sima clan. The physical girl before him was pretty, in a muted kind of way; tall, especially for her age; and rather thin. Her hair had been done up into an elaborate and eye-catching coiffure, but the face beneath it was very shy. She stepped forward at her mother’s command and allowed her hand to be placed in her brother’s.

“I am very glad to see you at last,” Sima Shi said to her.

“And I, you,” his sister managed in a very soft voice.

“I must apologize,” Sima Shi said to his father. “Your rooms are not yet ready, but I am having them made up for you now. I live very modestly here, but you and mother will have my room, and I have a little room for Nanyang… and as for food…”

“It is always so hard for a man to run his own house. This is why men can’t get along without women. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything while I’m here,” his mother said. “In fact, why don’t you take your father out for a walk while I do so? It has been so long since your father was in Luoyang; I am sure he will be very interested to discuss its changes with you.”

Sima Shi glanced from his father to his mother. “Certainly, mother, but perhaps father would like to rest first?”

His father’s smile widened. “Do I look so feeble?”

“Ah… not at all, I simply…”

“Don’t tease the boy,” his mother chided lightly. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

———

His son looked a lot like him, Sima Yi thought; but there were little glimpses of Chunhua here and there. A-Shi was certainly not as thin as he had been at his age; he got that from the Zhangs, he thought to himself, they were more athletic people.

They were speaking of things that meant nothing; the journey, the weather, their health. His son lived in a very busy part of the capital, close to the palace; it was obviously not a place to have conversations not overheard. He would have to wait for his son to indicate when it was safe to talk of real things.

Angry shouting could be heard, and Sima Yi saw his son frown.

“Is that…?” He glanced at his father. “May we investigate, father? I’m curious.”

They stopped as they turned a corner, some distance away, hidden by the crowd that had gathered in between, but able to see on account of both having height greater than the typical commoner.

The shouting was from an extremely angry young man, rather short, with slicked back hair, who was being ineffectually tugged at by his friends; his target was an elegant man in his late thirties whose thick hair fell in his face. Despite being harangued in a public street, he had an amused smile, almost unnerving in its placidity.

“I recognize Lord Guan Xing,” Sima Yi murmured to his son, and saw his son’s slight nod in response. “Who’s the barking puppy?”

“Zhuge Dan, a cousin of some kind of the prime minister,” Sima Shi murmured back. “He was a friend of Xiahou Xuan, whom there is no proof Lord Guan Xing murdered.”

Sima Yi chuckled. “I wish to renew my acquaintance with Lord Guan Xing.”

They got closer.

“You let a single drunken mistake justify the elimination of a man’s future!” Zhuge Dan was yelling. “What can be said to defend such a despicable thing?”

“Nothing can be said if you do not stop shouting long enough for me to answer you,” Guan Xing answered, with no sign of temper. “You have mistaken me for someone else, young man.”

“Everyone in the empire knows who you are! The moment his body was found without a tongue, everyone knew who had killed him! You wanted us all to know!”

“Master Zhuge Dan,” Sima Shi interrupted, “surely a public street is not the place to make such a serious accusation. You must take your evidence to the court.”

The interlocutors turned. Zhuge Dan stepped back and brushed off the hands of his friends irritably; he gave a curt bow to Sima Shi and his father. “I should have thought, Master Sima Shi, that from you I would receive more understanding of why I must resort to moral censure. You know your actions, my lord!” With this last to Guan Xing, he turned and left swiftly with his companions.

Guan Xing also gave a very mild bow, although from him it was obviously because the duke felt his own superiority. “Lord Sima Yi. It is good to see you looking so well after so many years.”

Sima Yi and his son bowed, more deeply, and the father said: “Likewise, Lord Guan Xing. Your accomplishments in that time have been entirely in keeping with what I expected of your talents.

“Master Fa Dian,” Guan Xing called, and a young man who had been standing in the shadows stepped forward. “You know Master Sima Shi well, of course. This is his father, Lord Sima Yi, governor of You province. Master Fa Dian is a son of Lord Fa Zheng, Lord Sima Yi; he fought alongside your son in the north.”

Sima Yi saw that his son was both surprised and pleased to see this Fa Dian; he bowed again. “I am pleased to meet one of my son’s friends, Master Fa Dian.”

“Ziyuan doesn’t have friends,” Fa Dian said, referring to his son by his style name, “only accomplices.”

“The first day I have seen my father in more than fifteen years and you are already determined to slander me to him?” Sima Shi countered. “You are worse than ever.”

Fa Dian laughed. “Do you know I had forgotten about that? I beg your pardon, Lord Sima Yi. Your son is right, I must spare you my scurrilous impertinences until… how long should I give you, Ziyuan? A week? Two?”

“I don’t believe you could hold your tongue for an hour,” Sima Shi said. “Lord Guan Xing, don’t tell me you’ve brought him with you to assist me with the memorial.”

“You don’t require anyone’s assistance for that,” Lord Guan Xing said. “No, he’s gotten himself injured.”

Fa Dian held up his right hand, a little sheepishly; it was wrapped in bandages such that it looked like an enormous mitten.

“I would have left him to recover in Jinyang, only he was getting restless and eyeing my daughter in a way that I didn’t at all care for,” Lord Guan Xing continued, shooting the younger man an ominous look. “And even worse, she’s been eyeing him back.”

“Little Meirong?” said Sima Shi, and Lord Guan Xing looked gratified.

“You have precisely the kind of attitude I like in my officers, Master Sima Shi.” To Fa Dian he said, “Did you hear your friend? ‘Little Meirong,’ he said.”

Fa Dian clearly did not have the same confidence discussing this topic as he did teasing Sima Shi. “I’m younger than he is, my lord.”

“I know how old you are.” Guan Xing turned back to Sima Shi. “My wife thwarted me, you know; she’s brought my family along, so Meirong is in the capital as well; I’m sure she’ll be glad to see you again. It must be two years at least since you’ve seen her.”

“I’ll need to get used to calling her Lady Guan, my lord.”

“Oh, by no means. Please, find as many opportunities as you can to call her Little Meirong; you will be doing me a tremendous service. I will certainly recommend you even more highly to the emperor. But I must be going now; that young hothead had me already late.”

They parted. Sima Shi led his father down main roads and then smaller alleys to a quieter, more residential place; a matron with weathered skin brightened when she saw them and beckoned them inside a modest little food stall.

“You have made good connections,” Sima Yi opened, after they had ordered.

“My lord is independent and, despite his own family pride, cares very little for the names of others,” his son said. “He sees talent and uses it. As for my friend, don’t be fooled by him. Before I left the north, my lord said once that my friend has all virtues and no appearance of virtue, whereas I am the reverse. Beneath that deplorable exterior, he is disturbingly righteous. I suspect my lord is not at all unhappy to have him for a son-in-law; he merely wishes to delay it.”

“Somewhat a harsh saying about you, is it not?” Sima Yi said, as the cooking smells made his stomach rumble.

“My lord has his own ideas about virtue,” Sima Shi said, meditatively. “At another time he called me ‘unfinished’. He does like me, I think. Certainly, he has recommended me very highly to his uncle.”

They talked on through their snack, with more of his son’s opinions and observations of the elite. As they strolled back to his son’s home afterwards, Sima Yi mulled over it all.

How excellent it was to be able to truly talk to his son. The brilliant mind he had seen in the self-censored letters was even more impressive in person. Here was a true heir and equal to him. Sima Yi felt relief all over again that he had managed to negotiate a surrender that saved his sons. The years of separation had been painful, but it could have been so much worse.

———

When they entered Luoyang, there was a definite order of importance to their procession.

At the front, of course, the queen, without question. At her side, just as important, the prime minister, Lord Lu Xun. Just behind them, practically as important, as nieces to the emperor, were Lady Zhang and Lady Guan.

Then the three main attractions, the “goods”, as Yufei flippantly put it: Princess Sun Ruhu, Lady Lu, and Lady Gan; and they had Lady Zhou with them an a mystery bonus.

Just behind them, Prince Sun Yi and Zhou Shen; interesting and important, certainly, but not nearly as hot an object of curiosity as the question of which of the three maidens would be the future empress and who was that unexpected _fourth_ girl?

And then, at the back, all the rest. And somewhere in the middle of that rest, Sima Zhao.

He looked up at the faces of the welcoming crowds, and wondered if any of them were his brother. He found himself searching for resemblances, trying to decide if that nose or those eyes, perhaps, looked a little like his own. He had nothing else to do, anyway, as the long formal welcome dragged on.

———

“Wow…” marvelled Zhuge Jing, standing on a balcony next to Sima Shi, well out of the actual official welcome, but with an excellent view of the arrivals. “What do they feed girls in the south?!”

“Rice, I think,” said Sima Shi dryly.

“They’re so beautiful!” His foster brother was entranced.

The three young ladies accompanying Princess Ruhu were indeed very good looking. One of them, in fact, was so perfectly, flawlessly beautiful that Sima Shi found her a little difficult to look at; she almost didn’t look real.

“Guan Zhu, you’ve been south, right? Do you recognize them?”

Zhuge Jing was speaking to another young man on his other side, Guan Zhu, the son of Guan Suo.

“The shortest one is my cousin, Lady Lu Ruofeng,” Guan Zhu answered, “and the girl with her hair pulled into a big bun beside her has got to be Lady Zhou Tianhua, but I didn’t think she was coming. She’s only fourteen, I think. So the other one must be Lady Gan. I never met her before. She really is as beautiful as everyone says.”

“She sure is! Shi Ge, isn’t she the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen?”

“They said the same thing about her mother, Lady Qiao, when she was young,” Sima Shi said, leaving his own opinion out of it.

Guan Zhu laughed softly and nudged at Zhuge Jing. “The prince certainly agrees with you. Look.”

Sure enough, Prince Liu Da, standing near where his father the emperor was receiving his guests, was staring at Gan Yufei with his admiration and amazement written all over his face. All at once, the prince seemed to realize what he was doing; he blinked, seemed to take a breath to steady himself as he looked at the ground, then turned his attention to his father. Yet even then he could not stop taking glances at the young women.

Sima Shi looked back at the Wu delegation. Which one of them was his little brother? The two young men chatting a little behind the maidens he dismissed; his brother wasn’t important enough to be that far forward. Now among the other, who was the right age…?

Could that really be him? Most of the lesser members of the delegation were officials of age thirty or higher, so it seemed like that young man was the only possibility. And he was searching the crowd in Luoyang with exactly the kind of uncertain hope on his face that Sima Shi had felt in his heart from the moment he learned that he was to be reunited with his family.

But he was so _tall!_

Could the baby brother in his memory who sucked his thumb and chased after him like a duckling be _that_ tall now?

The tall young man’s eyes panned over the balcony, and noticed Sima Shi staring at him.

They looked at each other, and Sima Shi wondered if his face was saying the same thing he saw in the other man’s face: _Is it you?_

At almost the same moment, Sima Shi smiled, and the tall man smiled too; disbelieving smiles, grins that were almost silly yet couldn’t be held back.

_It’s you. It’s you. At last, it’s you_.


	3. 耳鬓厮磨 (Thick as thieves.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The outfits that I will describe in this chapter for Sima Shi and Sima Zhao are both loosely based on their Dynasty Warriors 7 outfits, with the most obvious difference being a palette swap—Shu officer Sima Shi's outfit is jade green, instead of aqua blue; Wu official Sima Zhao wears a dark and muted red. (Also the way Sima "nice pecs" Zhao dresses makes so much more sense if he was Gan Ning's foster son, doesn't it??? More canon than canon, I'm telling you...)
> 
> In accordance with my grand plan to give everybody in Wu southern Japanese weapons, Sun Yi uses tekko, a kind of knuckleduster; Zhou Shen uses a hanbo, a half-staff; Gan Yufei a kyoketsu-shoge, a hooked dagger with a chain and weighted ring attached. Sima Zhao gets to keep his big ol' cutlass though.
> 
> As far as I know there was no such thing as any kind of formal coronation process for a crown prince; I'm making it up out of nothing for dramatic purposes.

耳鬓厮磨： _er bin si mo_  
ear / sideburns / with each other / touching  
"Thick as thieves; very close relationship."

Sima Zhao was nobody, and nobody stopped him from moving to the balcony where his brother was once the welcome was done, while the actually important guests were being escorted to the banquet.

“Gege,” he said when they were face to face. He was smiling like an idiot and he knew it, and he had the tongue of an idiot as well; he couldn’t think of anything else to say. His brother was smiling back at him too, and they were both looking all over each other. Sima Shi was impeccably dressed in a way that suggested a military officer and a strategist. He had a small _guan_ pinned over his topknot,and a dramatic and elegant jade green coat tied over grey and subtle padded armour.

“You got taller than me,” his brother said at last. He had a deep, rich voice, like his dim memories of their father. “How… have you been?”

“I’ve been alright, I guess… I missed you. I missed you a lot.”

“I missed you too,” Sima Shi said. “I’m sorry.”

“What? Why are you sorry?”

“I’m your older brother, aren’t I?”

His brother’s smile was bittersweet, and Sima Zhao understood what he couldn’t say. _I was supposed to protect you, I was supposed to be there for you._ “Well, just don’t beat me up like you used to,” he said, and was glad when his brother’s smile widened.

“I’m not sure I would dare to,” he drawled. “You’re rather intimidating.”

Sima Zhao scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“If it’s not too much like beating you up, I would like to spar with you.”

Sima Zhao’s eyes lit up at that. “Yeah, that would be something! It won’t end well for me, though, I’m guessing. I’ve never been in a real battle, not like you…”

“A-Shi!” Both men turned; their mother was walking towards them rapidly with a face that foretold hell for someone. “A-Shi, please give your friend your excuses, I need you immediately. I can’t find your brother among them at all. They can’t have kept him on a later boat or carriage, could they? You must find him for me.”

“Mother?”

Zhang Chunhua, who had merely glanced briefly at Sima Zhao as she came up, turned to the tall young man with puzzlement, and her eyes widened.

“Mother, it’s me,” he said, and hoped he wasn’t crying.

“A-Zhao?” she said in clear disbelief, and walked over to him. His mother took his hands; they were so much bigger than hers, and she turned them over in amazement, then looked up, even more incredulous. “What did they feed you in the south?”

Sima Zhao wasn’t sure how to answer that. “Uh… rice?”

He heard his brother snort.

“I used to worry about whether they gave you enough to eat,” she said, “I should have been worried instead for your hosts’ purses.”

“I always had enough to eat,” he assured her. “Did you really worry about that?”

“Of course I did, I am your mother,” she said. “Goodness, as tall as this! When I want to kiss your face you will have to bend down for me to do so.”

Obediently he bent over and was rewarded with her kiss on his cheek. She _smelled_ familiar, a spicy and floral scent that he didn’t even know he remembered. Her hand rubbed the stubble on his chin. “You need to shave better, A-Zhao.”

“Yes, mother. Sorry, mother.”

“Now that I look at you properly I can see the resemblance,” she said, smiling up at him. “Thank heaven at least one of you looks more like me. Your brother and sister are both your father through and through. Not that your father and you aren’t handsome men,” she said to Sima Shi, “but I don’t think it’s selfish to want _one_ of my children to take after me.”

Sima Zhao laughed, and his mother brightened even further. “Is that your laugh? Better and better! A-Shi, did you hear him? It _is_ possible for a Sima man to laugh without sounding like a demon.”

“I heard him, mother.”

“A-Zhao has such a nice laugh, just like Nanyang does. Oh! I should tell you! Your poor little sister is not of a strong constitution, and the journey was hard on her. I decided to have her stay at your brother’s home and miss the banquet tonight, because I feel the celebration tomorrow is much more important to attend—don’t you agree?” Without waiting for any response, she turned to the railing. “My lord! I found him!”

Sima Zhao had missed his mother intensely from the moment they were separated, but his feelings about his father were more mixed. His father had always been very busy, seldom even glimpsed by his younger son. When his father was around, his mother always had something to report about A-Zhao that would make him frown, and often reach for his whip. Unlike his older brother, Sima Zhao wasn’t a prodigy; he hadn’t been old or clever enough to be taught by his father before they were separated.

Father and son had written to each other, of course; but the letters were so formal. Sima Zhao had come to respect the hard choices and the sacrifices his father had made to preserve his sons’ lives, but he had never _missed_ his father like he missed his mother and brother.

Being taller than even the top of the hat of the man who came up to them was a shock. Sima Yi’s whip was held in one hand and draped with deceptive casualness across the other arm. How Sima Zhao had feared that whip! After all these years, he could almost hear the crack and feel the burn across his buttocks. Sima Zhao bowed as low as he could with his mother in the way. “Hello, father.”

“Hello, A-Zhao,” his father said. “You dress like a southerner.”

Sima Zhao looked down at himself. Growing from a boy to a youth around Gan Ning, he had gotten into the habit of leaving his coat fairly open, and that was how he was wearing it now, over loose trousers. His belt was actually a gift from Gan Ning that he had received just before he left them for Jianye: the large silver buckle had a pair of bells engraved on it, and Sima Zhao thought it was the nicest thing he owned. What part of it made him look like a southerner? And anyway, he had never left the south since he was five years old; why wouldn’t he look like a southerner?

His mother apparently thought the same thing. “He’s lived in the south for sixteen years,” she said. “How else is he supposed to dress? He looks very handsome in red, and I think the looseness is charming.”

Sima Zhao flushed a little. “Mother…”

His father smiled. “He does have the figure to pull it off, I’ll admit. He looks a little like your father, I think, my dear.”

“He does, doesn’t he?” Her mother turned back to him, delight in her face. “I told you, you take after my side. A-Shi, come here!”

Sima Shi obediently came to her other side, and she linked arms with both of them.

“There, now,” she said triumphantly, “this is exactly how I wish to enter the banquet hall.”

Sima Yi chuckled. “You have got your boys at last, my dear.”

———

At the welcoming banquet, Sima Shi was seated at a table of relatively high honour. Sima Shi’s table was sat like this: Lord Zhuge Liang in the highest rank; next to him, Sima Yi; then Zhang Chunhua; then Lady Huang; then Princess Meng Huaman, the daughter of Meng Huo and the widow of Xu Shu, who had been Lord Zhuge Liang’s closest friend; then Zhuge Jing; then Princess Huaman’s son Xu Zhan; then Sima Shi; then Sima Zhao; and finally, where Sima Nanyang ought to have been seated, instead was placed Lady Zhou Tianhua. He knew very little about the girl, other than that she was a last-minute addition to the party and that her mother was Lady Zhang Xingcai, an unusual woman who was as famed for her military experience as for being the daughter of the emperor’s oath brother Zhang Fei.

Doubtless, she had been placed at their table because his sister Nanyang’s absence made it the easiest way to avoid having to shuffle any other tables. One might have thought that a fourteen-year-old girl, placed at a table of complete strangers other than Sima Zhao, and seated next to one of the highest men in the land, might have been daunted; but it was not at all the case. She was utterly at ease, and answered Lord Zhuge Liang’s cordial inquiry into her journey as she poured him tea with the deft and charming grace of a hostess with decades of experience. Sima Shi, who had become expert in reading the minute changes that were all the insight one could get from Lord Zhuge Liang’s face, saw how impressed he was; but he passed her off to Sima Zhao in order to speak to Sima Yi.

Lady Huang and Princess Huaman were, to the chagrin of Lord Zhuge Liang, very close friends. The prime minister disdained all kinds of barbarians, but Lady Huang had immediately taken to Princess Huaman’s direct manner of speaking and, for her part, the Nanman princess had an inquisitive nature that was always eager to hear about Lady Huang’s latest scientific explorations.

His own mother listened to the two other women’s conversation without interjecting, sometimes turning her keen eyes elsewhere in the room.

Zhuge Jing was very uncomfortable and self-conscious at banquets. Beneath the table, Sima Shi could tell he was sitting on his left hand so that he would not flap it. Sima Shi and Xu Zhan therefore had a conversation across him, both young men endeavouring not to make much of Zhuge Jing’s silence.

Sima Zhao obviously knew Lady Zhou. Their conversation kept distracting Sima Shi; not because it was interesting, but exactly because it _wasn’t_ interesting. It was, on both sides, expert diplomatic nothingness. His brother’s letters had shown no increase in sophistication after he began apprenticing to Lord Lu Xun, and Sima Shi had assumed from that and other things that his brother wasn’t doing well in the role. But he certainly sounded like an official.

“How is your sister?” Sima Shi asked Xu Zhan.

“Well, last I heard,” he answered. Xu Zhan's twin sister Chunxiao was already married, to a son of Guo Huai stationed in the west. “On that matter, is your own sister alright?”

“My mother said she was merely overtired from the residual effects of the journey,” he said. “It was felt to be more important she be well-rested for the events tomorrow.”

Xu Zhan nodded. “It’ll be a long day, that’s for sure. At least the festivities in the garden are rather open-ended. You planning to duck out early, Xiao Jing?”

“I’m helping my mother with the fireworks,” Zhuge Jing said, actually perking up a little.

Xu Zhan glanced across the table, where Lady Huang was describing something to Lady Zhang with vigorous hand gestures denoting explosion. “I see! What does your role involve?”

“Mostly making sure that nobody else does anything stupid,” Zhuge Jing said with a chuckle. “If something gets set on fire or even just jostled at the wrong time or in the wrong way, it wouldn’t be good.”

“Where is it being set off?” asked Sima Shi.

“The emperor had an artificial hill made right in the centre of the gardens, by the big lake. Also, if there is an accident, it’ll be easier to fight the fire and keep it from spreading from there.”

“We’ve never seen fireworks before,” Sima Zhao interjected, gesturing to include Zhou Tianhua, who nodded. “Is it really fire in the sky? Isn’t it hot?”

Zhuge Jing shook his head. “From the ground you can’t feel any heat at all. You know how you can add powder to signal fires to change their colour? It’s like that, a bit, only it explodes way up high and makes a kind of flower shape in the sky.”

“Every time Lady Huang does one of these displays it’s bigger and better than the previous one,” Sima Shi said. “I haven’t been in Luoyang for one since the one for the birth of the youngest princess, and that was magnificent. I can hardly imagine how much better they’ve gotten in four years.”

“Is it very dangerous to work with them, Master Zhuge Jing?” asked Zhou Tianhua.

“Well it can be dangerous but—” Zhuge Jing stopped, and Sima Shi saw it suddenly hit his foster-brother: _a cute girl is talking to me._

Xu Zhan and Sima Shi both attempted to jump in to rescue him at the same time, speaking over each other, but Zhuge Jing surprised him by lightly nudging him under the table with his knee and saying, though his face was red and his voice a little high, “We have strict procedures, wear protective equipment and wash thoroughly afterwards. It’s not just the danger of fire… some of the materials can harm the skin if they touch them, or if you breathe the powders in, they can make you very sick.”

“I had a close call with that,” Sima Shi said. “I was stationed at a supply depot for the pyrocannons and we were ambushed. The fools rushed in headlong; it went far worse for them than for me. Even so, I’ll never forget what I saw.”

“Were you wearing your mask?” Lady Huang demanded.

“Of course, I remembered what you told me, my lady,” Sima Shi said, smiling at her with real affection.

“And afterwards—”Lady Huang checked herself with visible effort. “You must talk to me immediately after dinner, since I cannot discuss it here.”

“None of the symptoms you warned me about, my lady, I promise,” he assured her, guessing that she had been about to ask him if he had bloody mucus or other unpleasantries.

“You didn’t tell me because you didn’t want me to worry,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. “You are worse than Kongming.”

Sima Shi laughed, but as his eyes automatically went to see how Lord Zhuge Liang reacted to his wife's comparison of them, they passed over his real parents sitting in between, and the laughter instantly died. His mother was seething with jealousy; he read no particular emotion in his father’s face but only because he didn’t dare to let his eyes linger. He felt his face flushing with shame as he looked down at his plate. He might not use the term ‘mother’ to address Lady Huang, but the attitude with which he talked to her was exactly that of a son to his beloved mother—this right in front of his actual mother. And how could he deny that he _did_ treat Lady Huang as a mother? She was all the mother he had access to for so long; she was odd, but she loved him. Was he wrong for accepting and returning her love?

“Lady Huang,” said Sima Zhao, “perhaps the prime minister will spare you for one trip south to treat the people of Wu to such a spectacle.”

“Spare her to the south? You are far too ambitious as a diplomat, Master Sima Zhao, to choose this as your first challenge.”

As his younger brother laughed and countered, turning the topic off the fireworks altogether, Sima Shi realized that he himself had just been rescued. He let himself dare to glance again across the table at his real parents. His mother had recovered her composure, and was smiling placidly at her younger son. His father… well, it was still an expression that he somehow didn’t dare to linger upon too long; not anywhere near long enough to be able to decipher it.

He then looked at his younger brother. Sima Zhao was telling a self-deprecating story about his first official mission, where he had been served intensely hot and spicy food by his hosts while he was negotiating. “When we finally got around to writing up the agreement, I was worried that the sweat from my forehead was going to drip onto the paper and make the ink run.”

Sima Yi gave his dark chuckle. “But did you get the concessions you sought?”

“Well, yeah,” Sima Zhao scratched at his neck and laughed, sheepishly. “I think it impressed them when I asked for another bowl.”

———

“Where’s Yufei?”

It was just a casual question from Princess Ruhu as she joined up with her twin brother Sun Yi, Zhou Shen, and Lu Ruofeng, where they were bidding farewell after the banquet to Sima Zhao, who would be staying with his brother rather than in the rooms in the palace with the rest of them. But as they all looked at each other and realized that none of them knew the answer, it quickly became serious.

“Maybe she went back to the palace?” suggested Lu Ruofeng, not believing it herself.

“She’d have said something, wouldn’t she?” said Zhou Shen.

Prince Sun Yi suddenly stopped short, nearly making Sima Zhao run into him. “Oh my God. Jiejie [older sister], do you remember when I told you that some of my clothes were missing and that I thought one of the sailors had sticky fingers?”

Everyone looked at each other, the look of horror on every face showing that every single one of them had instantly realized exactly what had happened.

“She couldn’t wait even one day to make a scandal?” Zhou Shen groaned, then addressed Sima Zhao by his style name: “Zishang, we’re splitting the blame on letting her get out of our sight, alright? I am not shouldering this one alone.”

“Don’t panic, nobody has to get blamed yet,” Lu Ruofeng reasoned. “She hasn’t _actually_ caused the scandal yet. Maybe if we find her first we can stop it.”

“I really didn’t think she wanted to cause a scandal on purpose, not up here,” Princess Ruhu said. “But why would she sneak away like this? Where would she go?”

“Shen Ge [brother Shen], do you remember when she was here last if there was anything she actually enjoyed?” said Sima Zhao.

“There was a market my uncle [Gan Ning] took us to that sold glass and exotic art from _Daqin_ [the Roman Empire],” Zhou Shen said slowly. “He told us that a hundred or so years ago, a man of his clan named Gan Ying travelled as far as the Great Western Sea and back and that he was the first Chinese to make it so far west. I remember Yufei said that she wanted to go even farther than that.”

Ruofeng said, “She couldn’t possibly think the market would be open at this time of day? And would she even remember where it was? That must have been five years ago.”

“it’s all I can think of,” said Zhou Shen. “She does have an excellent navigational sense.”

“Well, there’s no help for it,” said Prince Sun Yi, and ticked off the options on his fingers to them all: “We can wait and hope she comes back safely from wherever the hell she is; we can inform the palace guards, which _will_ be a scandal, especially when they find her in my clothes; or we can give looking for her a shot.”

“I say look for her at least a little first,” said Princess Ruhu.

“I agree with Ruhu,” chimed in Ruofeng. “And she and I will wait in our rooms in the palace and stay awake so if she comes in we’ll know and we’ll send a message to you. And if you _do_ find her, we can help you sneak her in.”

“Let me just tell my brother I’ll probably be late joining them,” Sima Zhao said. “Shen Ge, I can bunk with you if it ends up being too late, right?”

Zhou Shen nodded, and Prince Sun Yi sighed.

“If her being found in my clothes ends up with _me_ having to marry her,” Prince Sun Yi said, “I’m going to keep her in chains.”

———

Gan Yufei had indeed gone to the market. Not because she was foolish enough to believe it would be open; no, she had an even grander and more foolish idea of seeing if she could, without being discovered to be a girl, swing her way into a caravan going west, destination: _Daqin_ , the Roman Empire!

She tossed pebbes at windows and rapped at closed doors until she found a merchant who opened up to her. He lived in his shop and was hosting guests there and thought, when he heard the knock, that it was another acquaintance. Instead, Yufei had barged in and begun her naïve proposal that they hire her to go west for them.

Yufei could pass for a boy at a distance with her chest wrapped, but at close range, especially once she spoke, she was found out immediately. The merchants, who had been enjoying the evening before a day when all the markets would be closed by carousing, had been a mix of personalities. Unfortunately one of them was both perverted and bold about it.

The three young men from the south hurried their pace as they heard a brawl, and came just in time to find Yufei, her hat knocked off and her beautiful braid spilling down from her back, grappling with two men while another was howling and cradling his hand and the rest stood around drunkenly.

“I fucked up,” Yufei said when she spotted them, “I know, ok? Yell at me later.”

The drunkards all stilled and stared at Sima Zhao, which made a certain amount of sense, since he was by far the tallest of the three. “Let her go,” he said.

“That little slut broke my fucking wrist!” screamed the injured man.

“Teach you to try to grope a woman, pervert!” Yufei shouted back. “I hope all your fucking glass shatters!”

Sima Zhao raised his hands and spoke soothingly. “Hey, hey, nobody wants this night to go any worse, right? You got hurt, I can’t change that, nobody can. We’ll make sure she gets what she deserves, gentlemen, alright? Just let us take her home and deal with her.”

This seemed to soothe most of the men, and one of the ones who had been struggling with Yufei let her go and stepped back, but the other gripped harder and said, “You think because you’re rich that you can let this little bitch waltz in here, break my brother’s hand, and stroll back out again without paying up? She goes nowhere until you give us compensation for his injury!”

“How about compensation for trying to stick his filthy pig hand in my pants?” Yufei snarled and nearly managed to get free when the man suddenly pulled out a short sword and put it to her throat. Yufei wasn’t _that_ stupid; she went still immediately.

“Let's not make things worse,” said Sima Zhao in the same calm, diplomat’s tone. “Yeah, okay, we’re rich. But don’t you realize that means you can’t possibly injure her and get away with it?”

“Don’t try to bluff me,” the man said. “She’s nothing. Just some little whore of yours, probably trying to escape you; that’s why she came up with this wild story of wanting to go west. You can turn around and leave her with us and we’ll get what we’re owed from her; but if you want to take her with you, you’ll have to pay.”

Before Sima Zhao could speak again, Prince Sun Yi stepped forward with his hand up and pointed to a ring on his finger. “I will give this to you,” he said, “but you must hand her over first.”

Sima Zhao saw the men exchange startled glances, and he could have kicked the prince. These men were merchants in fine arts! They could tell at a glance how precious Sun Yi’s ring was; that he had offered it so quickly? Now they thought they had them by the balls.

“No, give us the ring first,” said another man, “so we can see if it’s worth it.”

“Don’t give it to them,” Sima Zhao said before Sun Yi could move. “They’re going to say it’s worthless and demand more.”

“Then what are we doing?” he replied, but his hands had casually dropped down into his coat and Sima Zhao knew he was getting out his _tekko_ , the knuckledusters that turned the deceptively lazy prince into a brawler. Nor did Sima Zhao have to look behind him to know that Zhou Shen’s hand was subtly shifting on his half-staff.

Yufei’s eyes were shining with excitement; of course the little maniac was ready.

“Well, if you’re going to give them the ring, maybe we should get our money’s worth and injure them all,” said Sima Zhao, and unslung his cutlass. “I mean, it’s not too late for them to give her to us for free, but…”

One of the drunks decided this was all too much for him and bailed, but the others pulled out weapons of their own.

“I know your type,” sneered the ringleader. “Some little low level official who thinks he’s hot shit and that he can push around men who actually work. What’s your name, so I know which family to send the body to?”

Sima Zhao laughed at how they had all taken _him_ as the leader. “Huh? Me? It’s Sima, not that somebody as drunk as you could remember it.”

“Sima!” The drunkard sneered. “I should have known you were a Sima. Sima all have wide mouths like you—perfect for sucking my dick!”

Sima Zhao blinked, and then laughed, internally thinking, _do we really all have wide mouths?_ “That’s the best you can do for an insult?”

“Fuckin’ northerners,” laughed Sun Yi, smacking his _tekko_ together with a grand clang and then moving into a horse stance, “They only wish they could suck dick like us!”

This was clearly not the reaction the merchants were expecting. Nor did they seem to like the new attitude of their opponents; Zhou Shen did a showy twirl with his half-staff and came into line on the other side of Sima Zhao. He could see the confidence they had in their numerical advantage fading away. Time to rattle them a little further.

“Must be jealousy. You probably couldn’t suck my dick at all,” Sima Zhao said with mock concern. “Since your mouth is so tiny and my dick is so huge.” The man gripping Yufei gasped, and Sima Zhao knew he almost had him, one more little push—“It’s okay baby, we’ll go slow and I’ll be gentle—”

The man roared, letting go of Yufei and running for Sima Zhao with the short sword out. Sima Zhao laughed again, easily dodged this blind rush, and neatly got him with his sword handle to the side of his head as he charged past. He picked up the man’s sword while he was dazed and clucked. “Like I said, mine’s bigger.”

“Oh no you don’t,” said Zhou Shen, grabbing his cousin by the collar to pull her out of the fray as he blocked an attack from the side with his staff. “You don’t get to have fun when this is all your fault.”

“Aw c’mon Shen Ge,” Yuhui whined; the hooked dagger of her _kyoketsu-shoge_ was already wet with blood. “I’ve killed more people than the rest of you! Zhao Ge hasn’t even killed _anybody!_ ”

“That’s exactly why not, you little hellion, because we’re not going to kill anyone,” Sun Yi said as he nimbly bashed an opponent’s hand and forced him into dropping his weapon, which he then kicked out of the way. “If we left it up to you, you’d have killed them all.”

“You’re not going to kill _any_ of them?” Yufei demanded in outrage.

“Well, not on purpose, I guess,” said Sima Zhao, and his next opponent dropped his own weapon and ran. “Make your way to the exits at any time, gentlemen!”

The drunken merchants were taking up this invitation now, all except the one with the broken hand, who at least had enough courage not to abandon his still dazed brother; but he clearly didn’t have anything left in him to oppose them.

“Don’t mess with Sun Wu,” said the prince grandly as the three of them made their own exit, “where the men suck dick better than your women and the women fight better than your men!”

“Do I really have a wide mouth?” Sima Zhao wondered aloud as they banged the door shut.

———

Lu Xun slowly opened his eyes to the sound of tuneless humming.

His wife was sitting at a dressing table in the dim morning light, peering into a small mirror and applying her make-up. As he sat up, she abruptly stopped humming and turned to him.

“Oh, I’m sorry Boyan! I should have realized that would wake you up.”

“I’m not sure if it did,” he said, stretching. “I feel pretty well-rested. Yinping?”

“Hmm?” she said, having turned back to her pots and brushes.

“Can you wait to put on your lip colour?”

She stopped, twisted closed the lid of the jar she had just opened, and set it down. “Why Lord Lu Xun,” she said, “if you want to make love to your wife, you can just say so.”

“Alright,” he said, getting up and taking her hand when she extended it to him, “I want to make love to my wife.”

He kissed her uncoloured lips, pulling her back onto the bed with him as she undid her sash and let her robe slip from her shoulders. Nearly twenty years he had loved her, and yet her body delighted him every time. He had never said a word in favour or displeasure about the habit of make-up she had taken up in the last decade, but for him it made no difference at all. Every line on her face was from the years of her life she had lived with him and for him; she could only become more beautiful to him.

As she straddled him, he said, soft and excited, “So it hasn’t come yet?”

“No, it hasn’t,” she said, rubbing herself along him.

“You might really be pregnant then. Do you have a feeling either way?”

“It’s easy for you to be excited,” she said, but without bitterness. “You don’t have to do any of the hard work.”

“I know. I’m so grateful to you… Yinping, you’re amazing…” Then he groaned as she took him inside her. “Ah! Yinping, you’re _so_ amazing!”

She laid down on him and kissed him, then said, “If I might be, then I want to enjoy you on top while we still can.”

They rolled over, him still inside her. “Put your legs up.”

She did so, bending her knees and putting her feet against his chest while he shifted his grip on her hips to penetrate her deeply. “Oh! Boyan! That’s it!”

“Just like this?” he said, keeping that angle as he thrusted.

“Yes, yes, yes!”

“Should I go faster?”

“No, it’s perfect! Boyan! It’s so good! Don’t stop!”

“I won’t,” he panted, keeping that steady rhythm, letting his eyes enjoy her as much as his cock was.

When she called for him to go faster, though, he had to close his eyes. She was too beautiful, she felt too good…

“Ah! I’m coming! Boyan! I’m coming!”

Lu Xun opened his eyes and set his body free to join her in the heights.

Afterwards they lay cuddled together, Lu Xun kissing her again and again.

“Stop,” she finally laughed.

“I’m just getting them in now since I won’t want to smear the colour later,” he said. “Logic.”

He did allow her to get up though, since it was indeed time to get ready for the long day ahead. He was scheduled to have a brief appointment with Zhuge Liang over breakfast where they would chat with knives in their smiles. There would be the coronation itself, in the late morning and stretching across noon into the afternoon; then a banquet, or rather many banquets; and then the grand celebration in the gardens, the true highlight of the event. At a formal banquet, after all, you were very limited in whom you could speak with; in the huge space of the imperial gardens, in the dim of night and under the noise of the fireworks and the various performers, all kinds of conversations were possible.

Lu Xun thought it highly likely that he would end up staying up very late into the night indeed. He dressed, and was finished when his wife was just done with her make-up.

“Could you call the servant to help me with my hair and my clothes?” she said. “Which of these hair pins, do you think?”

“I think this one with the osmanthus would be very appropriate,” he said, “but you may as well try more than one, and see what Little Mouse thinks. You don’t have to be anywhere for a while.” Though he called his daughter Ruofeng to her face, privately with his wife he still called all their children by their milk names. “I may not see you until the banquet.”

“Goodbye,” she said.

As he could not kiss her lips, he kissed her hand, and then left.

In the hall he encountered Sima Zhao outside Zhou Shen’s door, which surprised him very much. Why wasn’t he maximizing his time with his family?

“My lord,” said Sima Zhao, with just a hint of a nervous blush. “I… was just seeing if Master Zhou Shen wanted to have breakfast.”

He knocked on the door, and Zhou Shen’s voice from within said, “Did you leave something in here?”

“No, it’s me, Sima Zhao,” said Sima Zhao, leaning a little hard on the negative. “I came to see if you wanted to have breakfast?”

The door opened; Zhou Shen was half-dressed and looking puzzled, but he saw Lu Xun and his face changed instantly. “Oh! Yes! It’s good to see you so early, Zishang. Just wait for me outside and I’ll get dressed.”

“As an improvisation, I give it half marks,” Lu Xun said. “You should have planned this better.”

“Please don’t question me, my lord,” Sima Zhao said in an undervoice. “Trust me, it’s something you should not—no, must not—know.”

“Can you tell me when we return to Jianye?”

“Can and definitely will,” Sima Zhao muttered.

“In that case, have a good morning,” Lu Xun said, and passed on.

Lu Xun and Zhuge Liang ate their food and each others’ hearts as they verbally fenced over matters of border incursions, taxes, and tributes, each attempting to set the agenda for the next few weeks that would best benefit his master. When they were drawing to a close, a message arrived. The emperor was requesting them both.

As he kowtowed, Lu Xun’s agile mind was busily working through the possible reasons why not only the soon-to-be crown prince Liu Da, but also Prince Sun Yi, Zhou Shen, Sima Zhao, and Sima Shi were there. It was obvious that it was related to the matter that, in deference to Sima Zhao, he Knew Nothing About. But why those five?

“This is rather unfortunate timing, I know,” the emperor said, “but I thought I would rather hash it out immediately. Rumours must not be allowed to run wild.”

That was the first clue of both the nature of the matter and what the emperor wanted to do about it: it was a potential scandal and the emperor wanted only to hush it up.

“A report has already reached my ears,” the emperor continued, “of a most wild and fantastic brawl that occurred in the city last night. A large group of respectable merchants, all claiming that they were set upon, unprovoked, by four young southern men.”

Lu Xun was unobtrusively watching Prince Sun Yi, who he thought had the best chance of giving things away non-verbally. He saw the Wu prince’s eyebrows raise and his head shift slightly, as if he was not sure that he had heard correctly, at the end of the sentence.

 _Something there is incorrect,_ Lu Xun thought. _Good. We can attack the accuracy vigorously then._

“And not just any young southern men; after all, the imperial capital receives visitors from all corners of the empire every day of the year. No, the merchants specifically claimed that this little gang was led by a man calling himself a Sima.”

Lu Xun hoped that all eyes were on Sima Zhao, and none but his own on Sun Yi, whose face tensed at the detail of the man calling himself a Sima. _That part really happened. Zishang, you foolish boy!_

He looked at the Sima brothers now; both looked calm and sober.

“The report reached me so quickly because the details were rather lurid,” the emperor said. “This Sima, they said, claimed his penis was too large to have fellatio performed upon it—” There was a general outbreak of unconvincing coughing, which the emperor nonetheless continued over—“and one of his companions yelled, quite loudly, that southern men perform fellatio better than northern women and southern women fight better than northern men. They want to know the identity of these villains to seek compensation from them for several serious injuries.”

Oh, no wonder the boy said he “definitely” would tell Lu Xun when they got back to Jianye. This sounded like quite a story.

“It is the kind of story that will be told and is already being told,” the emperor continued, “and the story itself cannot be stopped. I wish to hear your thoughts upon this matter, starting, I think, with Sima Zhao.”

“Your majesty, it’s obviously all outrageous lies,” the young man said, with just the right amount of restrained amusement. “I have no idea who’s paying them or why, but they can’t know their targets very well. Of the _three_ of us, I’m never the leader in anything—ask anyone you like—and who is this fourth young southerner who was supposedly with us? They must have planned this in advance and with bad information about who would make up our delegation.”

“Lord Lu Xun, what is your opinion?”

“It sounds very unlike Sima Zhao,” Lu Xun lied. “A very strange story, your majesty; more like a bawdy tale told to entertain over a drink than something that could really occur. And I can assure the emperor that there is no fourth man anything close to the appropriate age in our delegation.”

“Sima Shi, was your brother with you last night?”

“Of course, your majesty,” Sima Shi lied without a flicker of an eyelid. “As my brother says, it’s nothing but a series of sloppy lies. Since their intelligence about the south is so poor and their main target appears to be my brother, it is perhaps someone motivated more by a desire to embarrass my father on his visit to the capital, and attempting to shield this plot by disguising it as an anti-Wu one instead, with all this folderol about southerners.”

“Their information indeed had puzzling inconsistencies, yet was also strangely aware of some uncommon details. Such as that ring that you wear, Sun Yi.”

By long custom, Sun Yi was permitted to call the emperor Guzhang [uncle, father's sister's husband], but he did not press this advantage here. “Your majesty, I have worn this ring for years, including on my last visit to Luoyang.”

“If I may make so bold, father,” Prince Liu Da said, and received a permissive nod, “I visited my cousin in his room last night… I admit I did not stay long, as… certain other people in the area were not pleased I was there…”

“I’ve already heard that you and Ruhu got into a screaming match,” the emperor said with a sigh. “I had been worried _that_ would cause a scandal. This brawl mess may be a blessing in disguise. It is, as you all agree—” The emperor had glanced at Zhuge Liang and the imperial chancellor had made a tilt of his head that might or might not have been a nod—“demonstrably false. The chancellor will take care of making it clear that this is gross slander. The merchants are to be taken into custody and punished for their lies; I do not care who may or may not have been paying them. Whoever it was—” The emperor had been turned sideways as he spoke, and now tilted his face in such a way that it was visible to the three young men in question—“ _It was a childish trick._ You’re all dismissed except my son.”

When they had left, Zhuge Liang gave Lu Xun a look that had a suggestion of wanting to say something, and Lu Xun followed him to a large window that was opened out upon a pretty courtyard. The two men stood side by side regarding it.

“So,” said Zhuge Liang, looking at him from the corner of his eye, “the younger with you, and the elder with me.”

Lu Xun laughed. “Is it a competition?”

“It could not be. The comparison would not be fair…” He trailed off, and just when Lu Xun was wondering which offensive meaning he was supposed to take from that, he turned his head slightly towards Lu Xun and added, “You have only had the young man what, four years?”

“A little less than that, yes.”

“When I learned he was to shadow you, it surprised me,” he said. “Everything I had heard of the young man… well. You have made a great deal of progress, Lord Lu Xun.”

“He has a natural talent for disarming expectations,” said Lu Xun.

“Just so. How dangerous is he, do you think, my lord?”

“At the moment, not very. But when he realizes everything, he will become an extremely dangerous man,” said Lord Lu Xun without hesitation.

Zhuge Liang nodded. “I saw it, a little, just in the banquet last night. Just now, I saw it much.”

“I’ve known it for some time.”

“Have you made plans to deal with it?”

“I keep a close eye on him.”

“On him and your daughter?” Zhuge Liang said coolly.

Lu Xun smiled and repeated, “I keep a close eye on him.”

“You really have become too masterful,” Zhuge Liang said in a tone of mild complaint.

“When an irritant rubs against the skin too often, the skin becomes hard, my lord,” responded Lu Xun, still smiling.

Zhuge Liang chuckled softly. “But it is actually a matter of the state. It is time for them to be yoked, if they are to be useful oxen. Do you disagree?”

“I would not comment on the elder, but it is true that Sima Zhao should think of taking a wife. I have been waiting for him to approach me about it.”

“You don’t approach him?”

“I know him.” Lu Xun’s smile widened. “I suggest you let me handle it, Lord Zhuge Liang. He is the responsibility of Wu—that was our agreement, unless you wish to renegotiate it?”

Zhuge Liang bowed. “By no means. The imperial court is most grateful for the service of Wu in all things.”


	4. 行不更名，坐不改姓 (I stand by my name, no matter what.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: there is a brief description of serious corporal punishment by a parent to a child and some disturbing language around it.

行不更名，坐不改姓： _xing bu geng ming, zuo bu gai xing_  
_act / not / replace / given name, family punishment / not / change / family name_  
_"I stand by my name, no matter what." A quote from a Chinese opera called "the Ghost in the Pot" that has become an idiom. 坐 which ordinarily means "to sit" here is a referral to Chinese customs and laws of collective punishment called lianzuo 連坐. The character means that he will not change his personal name to escape his own actions, and he will not change his surname to escape punishment for a family member's action. This idiom has come to mean in a larger sense "I am not ashamed of who I am."_

Sima Yi’s eyes were looking as the emperor droned on some Confucian babble, standing before the new crown prince, but he was letting his attention wander over the other governors nearby.

Lord Guan Xing, a duke, governor of Bing province to the north, who resembled his beloved father Guan Yu hardly at all in appearance, and who was famous for his ruthlessness and efficiency, both in control of his province and in repulsion of various invaders from the north.

Next to him, Lord Zhang Bao, who had taken control of Yi province from his father Zhang Fei a decade ago and the man’s ducal title upon his death five years after that. Competent, of good moral character, and not remarkable; an ideal combination of traits in a docile governor.

These three traits also described Lord Ma Chao, a marquis and the governor of Liang. The man had been, admittedly, an exquisite warrior in his youth, but an imbecile totally driven by his emotions. Sima Yi, in Zhuge Liang’s place, would never have granted the man command of anything; but he had apparently mellowed with age, and Liang province had handled its own difficulties with barbarian invaders with aplomb.

Seeing Ma Chao made Sima Yi think about Ma Chao's wife, Wang Yi. She, too, had been totally driven by her emotions, but she had the self-control and the perception to avoid imbecilic behaviour. When she was under his command, she was one of the finest weapons in his hand. When he had received the report that Ma Chao, the object of her implacable hatred, had taken her as a wife, it had actually made him shudder. It seemed to him like a torture beyond reason; he avoided thinking about it, because he did not want to even conjecture what kind of acts could make the woman he knew submit to that.

Sima Yi gave himself a mental shake and moved on. Lord Jiang Wei, Zhuge Liang’s pet, governed Qing province, and as Qing province bordered his own province of You, he had to deal with him often. The man’s idolatry of Zhuge Liang had never attenuated, but at least he managed things tolerably well. The three other Shu governors were Lord Fei Yi, of Yu province against the border with Wu; Lord Liao Hua, who had Yan province; and Lord Jiang Wan, who had Ji province; Sima Yi had no particular feelings about any of the three.

The three Wu governors were Lord Ling Tong of Jing province, Lord Zhu Ran of Xu province, and Lord Ding Feng of Jiao province. Only Ling Tong and Zhu Ran were there; perhaps Jiao was too far away or too unstable to leave. Zhu Ran was one of those unpredictable fools who veered between strange genius and mundane blunders. Even if he had accomplished nothing else, his ruse that had single-handedly repulsed Cao Pi’s invasion of Guangling would have made him worthy of the appointment, Sima Yi had to grudgingly admit. Ling Tong was more of the all-around heroic type. In the years of the peace, Jing province had become perhaps the most prosperous in China, and while it had many natural advantages, Ling Tong’s leadership had to receive at least some of the credit…

The ceremony was ending, thank heaven; remaining in a solemn kneel this long was hard on his back. The governors made their way to their wives and families.

Chunhua was speaking to a woman while Nanyang listened to another young lady, his sons standing by. As Sima Yi approached them, he felt a shock to realize that his wife’s conversational companion was none other than Wang Yi.

“Lord Sima Yi,” Wang Yi said, and he bowed. She still had metal and fire in her eyes, she was only older than the woman he had known; in no way did she appear destroyed or enslaved. “How long it has been. May I present my daughter, Ma Yingqi?”

The girl who had been talking to Nanyang bowed; she showed obvious Qiang heritage in the dark bronze of her hair. Wang Yi must have had non-Han ancestry as well, then.

“How do you do, Lady Wang? How long it has been indeed. I see you have met my family.”

He saw her eyes look at something over his shoulder with pleasure, and then he heard a voice from behind him: “Renewing acquaintances, my love?”

“Indeed,” Lady Wang said to Ma Chao. “I knew Lord Sima Yi very well, and his wife Lady Zhang Chunhua a little, so long ago. In another life altogether.”

“Another life indeed.” Ma Chao was bowing to Sima Yi. “May I be introduced to your family, my lord?”

Sima Yi went through the introductions outwardly, while inwardly he was attempting to make sense of the incomprehensible. Ma Chao, who had nothing but hatred for Cao Cao where his brain ought to have been; Wang Yi, who had a brain, but who dedicated it entirely to destroying Ma Chao. The two implacable enemies regarded each other now with comfortable companionship.

_In another life altogether._

It would be a busy day, there were so many people to network with; as they parted, Sima Yi’s gaze lingered a moment on how Ma Chao had a light hand on Wang Yi’s back, as his wife affectionately straightened the decorative hair pin in their daughter’s hair.

_So she is happy… perhaps it doesn’t matter how._

“Father,” Sima Shi said quietly into his ear, “we need to find somewhere private to talk. As a family.”

———

“Now that we finally have a moment,” Sima Shi growled, “A-Zhao, what the _hell_ was that about this morning?”

Sima Zhao tried to laugh it off, but he was not nearly so successful at acting calm under the gaze of his father, mother, and brother as he had been in front of the emperor. “Nothing. Just slander, like the emperor said.”

“Where were you last night, according to the slander?” Sima Shi hissed.

Sima Zhao swallowed. “According to the slander… I was… assisting a friend.”

“Why would you give the name Sima?”

So there was to be no escape from recounting this. He sighed. “It just seemed like an absurd question in the moment, and I responded off the cuff. I didn’t realize… you have to understand, in the south, the name Sima means nothing.” Sima Zhao regretted the words the moment they were out of his mouth; he saw how they had hit his father and brother like arrows.

“I see, the name Sima means nothing, so you thought you could just toss it out like garbage,” said Sima Shi, very low.

“That’s not what I mean,” Sima Zhao said, “He just… it was just pre-fight taunting. He asked what clan to send my body to; I told him he was too drunk to remember it was Sima. I admit I messed up.”

“You got into a drunken fight last night?” his father said.

Great. Now he was getting it from both of them. “I was sober! Believe me, I didn’t go looking for this!”

“Did your friend go looking for this?” said his mother. “If so, A-Zhao, that is not a friend.”

Sima Zhao sighed. “Friend isn’t the right word.”

“Then what is?” demanded his brother.

“Little sister,” Sima Zhao said, sighing more. “She’s an utter brat, but I couldn’t _not_ save her. I don’t regret that part.”

“A little sister?” said his mother. “I see. Nanyang, come with me, please. I wish to fix your hair before the banquet.”

Oh, fantastic. First he tells his father and brother that he doesn’t value the clan name; now he rubs his mother’s face in the fact that he has an entire southern family that he loves like blood. Sima Zhao was really doing well today.

“Lady Gan?” said Sima Shi quietly when their mother and sister had left.

“Yeah,” Sima Zhao said. “She thought she could run around wild here like she does in Lujiang. Hopefully what happened will wake her up. If we hadn’t rescued her, the scandal would have made what really happened look like an old lady’s tea ceremony.”

“But who would that scandal have reflected on?” said Sima Shi.

Sima Zhao did not like the hypocrisy of this, and he pushed back. “I thought from the way you were acting last night with Lady Huang, you would understand.”

“A-Zhao. A-Shi.” They both turned to their father. “Am I correct in my understanding that there will be no lasting repercussions from this except a certain amount of embarrassment?”

Both of his sons nodded.

“Then I don’t care,” said Sima Yi. “It’s time to go to the banquet.”

———

Zhao Shanlin, eldest child of Zhao Yun and Ma Yunlu, and her cousin Ma Yingqi, had the good fortune to be seated near enough together at the banquet that they could indulge themselves by talking of nothing but horses through the entire meal.

When the banquet broke up and everyone began wandering into the imperial gardens, however, her cousin took her a little aside and asked, with some hesitation: “Linlin, the young men here in Luoyang—what are they like? Are there any you think could be a match for me?”

Shanlin was surprised. “Are your parents looking to find you someone here?”

“I’m not sure,” Yingqi answered. “I wouldn’t have thought so, except that they got very strict with me about how I dressed. You shouldn’t be fooled; if it were up to me, I wouldn’t look this nice.”

Shanlin laughed with her. “I think you’d do better with a Liang man,” she said frankly.

“That’s what I thought too.” Yingqi frowned. “You can’t think of any young men at all?”

“Is something worrying you?” Shanlin said.

Yingqi looked at her hands. “We ate with Lord Jiang Wei, the governor of Qing province, this past week. Twice. And we are to eat with him again tomorrow.”

“Lord Jiang Wei? I don’t know him at all. Isn’t he married?”

“His wife died two years ago in childbirth,” she said. “All he had by her were daughters.”

“I see… you don’t like him?”

“I don’t like what I think he likes in me,” Yingqi said. “The way I’m dressed now—he likes that. The way I don’t say anything at dinner—he likes that too. I don’t think he would like the me I am back in Liang, in pants and on top of a horse. And he must be forty at least.”

“You should talk to your father then immediately, before he can agree to anything,” urged Shanlin.

“I’m worried it may be too late already,” Yingqi said. “I’ve seen things that make me think my father is gathering together a dowry for me. It was only two days ago, at the second dinner with Lord Jiang Wei, at the very end of it, that it suddenly occurred to me that he might be the reason why. Up until then, I merely though my father had some business with him. That is why I asked you if you knew of anyone else that my father might want for me. But it seems like…” The young woman sighed. “It’s a good match, isn’t it? A governor, a marquis… no sons… I’m just being a fool.”

“I don’t think you’re being a fool,” Shanlin assured her. “It’s not too late! Speak to your mother, if you cannot bring yourself to do so to your father.”

Yingqi nodded, then forced herself to smile. “Listen, do you hear that? I think there must be performers that way. Let’s go and watch.”

———

Fa Dian and Sima Shi stood in a pavillion in a part of the gardens that had very bad views of the fireworks display and was therefore nearly deserted. They were sharing the same bottle of wine, pleasantly buzzed and enjoying light-heartedly tearing each other to shreds. They could hear the booms and crackles of the fireworks and see the colourful flashes dimly reflected in the water of the pool they were staring out over.

“Now hold on a minute,” Sima Shi said abruptly after taking a drink from the bottle. “You’re twenty now, aren’t you? What’s your style, then?”

“Juncheng,” Fa Dian answered, taking the bottle from him to have his turn with it. “ _Jun_ as in _junzi_ (gentleman); _cheng_ as in _biancheng_ (become).”

“So Lord Guan Xing gave it to you,” Sima Shi stated with certainty. “What did your father think of it?”

“He laughed at me, called me a little dreamer, and laughed at me some more. He sent Lord Guan Xing a horse as a gift immediately afterwards, so I think he may secretly like it,” Fa Dian said. Sima Shi didn’t miss how he was glancing at him.

“No need to be coy,” Sima Shi said. “I’ll call you Juncheng. Did you really think I wouldn’t?”

Fa Dian’s face tilted in an embarrassed way, and he took a big swig of the bottle, then belched. “Who gave you your style name, anyway?”

“Lord Zhuge Liang,” Sima Shi said. Ziyuan - _zi_ (son or gentleman); _yuan_ (primary, chief). It was rather subtle. On the surface, it was entirely conventional: _zi_ was a very common beginning character for style names, with a sense of erudition; _yuan_ was also very common in style names, and could be considered simply an allusion to his birth name of _Shi,_ master. But Zhuge Liang was never just surface. By taking him into his home and raising him from seven-years-old, when Zhuge Jing was merely a baby, in a way, Sima Shi had become Zhuge Liang’s “first son”. Obliquely, therefore, it was almost like a permanent claim of fatherhood over him. His own true father, who was always thorough in his replies, noticeably entirely ignored the topic when he wrote back to the letter where Sima Shi informed him of his style name and its source. He had the feeling that this silence was because the name had enraged Sima Yi. Sima Shi had not been sure how he felt about the name when he had been given it and still was not sure, but it was not as if he could have declined a style name given by the prime minister.

“Master Sima Shi,” said an arch voice from behind his shoulder, “did I dismantle you so thoroughly within our last conversation that you are avoiding me now?”

Sima Shi turned and raised his eyebrows. It was Princess Ruhu, looking very pleased with herself, and there was no one else in sight. That the princess would approach him at all surprised him; that she had managed to let slip her no doubt very attentive retainers to do so went beyond even that. Aloud, he said, “I had not even dared to hope that the princess remembered our last conversation, my lady.”

“Forget Master Sima Shi! Impossible,” she declared. At Fa Dian, she said, “Who are you?”

Fa Dian laughed and bowed. “No one as memorable as Sima Shi, my lady,” he said. “I am Fa Dian, son of Lord Fa Zheng.”

She nodded. “You’re right, I’ll probably forget you before the night is out. Will you take a message for me? I need you to find my brother and tell him his sister wants him.”

“As my lady commands,” Fa Dian said with an elegant bow and was off.

Princess Ruhu turned back to Sima Shi. “Now that he’s dealt with, I need to talk with you, Master Sima Shi. It’s regarding your brother.”

“Talk with me about my brother? As you wish, my lady, but you probably know him even better than I do.”

“It’s because I know him that I need your help with him,” she said. “We all love Zhao Ge [brother Zhao], and we all know he’s helplessly in love with my friend Ruofeng—all of us except her. And we all know she’s been sweet on him for years—all of us except him. And the two of them are so loveable and so stupid that we are all in despair about it. Do you know when I left them, she had persuaded him to lift her onto his shoulder to see the fireworks? He was blushing like crazy and so was she. He said something like ‘Are you alright up there, Ruofeng?’ and then she said, ‘Oh, I’m just fine, it’s so beautiful! Are you sure I’m not too heavy?’ and then he said something like, ‘Oh no, I could carry you forever.’ Then the fool turned even brighter red and meanwhile she’s up there, like a dope, blushing just as bad and saying, ‘That sounds so nice’ and neither of them will actually _look_ at each other. They are the biggest idiots you can imagine.”

He laughed. “And what do you expect I can do, my lady?”

“Speak to your father, of course! Your parents will think it an excellent match, will they not? And I am sure Lord Lu Xun does not oppose it, or he would have warded Zhao Ge off. If we get them married, they’ll have to admit they like each other.”

Sima Shi remained smiling, and hoped the darkness hid the bitterness of it. “I am very honoured to hear that the princess has such a high opinion of my younger brother’s worth… if not his observational skills. However, I don’t think you can attribute my brother’s lack of action to stupidity, my lady.”

“What do you mean?”

“He could never be an acceptable match to her parents,” he said. “The lack of ‘warding him off’ that you interpret as Lord Lu Xun welcoming his suit is surely more because he expects that my brother will hold himself back of his own accord.”

“Why wouldn’t he be acceptable?” she demanded. “He’s a governor’s son, and he’s lived among the very highest families in Wu!”

“I wouldn’t have taken you for an incurious girl,” Sima Shi said mildly. “You never wondered why a governor’s son never went home to his parents?”

She opened her mouth and closed it.

“My brother and I were hostages, my dear princess,” he said gently. “My father was only not executed for his earlier resistance to the emperor because the threats in the north were too acute and his talent too good to waste. Had my father ever made a motion to rebel, your father would have put my brother to the sword.”

She stared at him; he had really surprised her. “I see…” she said slowly. “But… you are adults now, and surely after so many years your father has proven he can be trusted now? Surely the next step would be to marry you and your brother to women whose allegiance is secure; then your clan will be tied to the empire forever.”

“You’re not wrong, my lady,” he said, “but not anyone as high up as Lady Lu. She is far more than even I could hope for, and my brother is a younger son, you must grant. Keep in mind, too, that we are a family notorious for our degeneracy. I doubt any loving father will wish us upon his daughter.” He smiled. “Some lowly little cousins will be found for us sooner or later, I suppose, with a crooked back or no sight in one eye.”

“You are very pessimistic about your worth.”

He shrugged with a half-smile. “I shall endeavour to give my crippled wife no cause to complain.”

She laughed at him, as he intended her to, and they began a verbal dance that was even more enjoyable than bantering with Fa Dian.

———

“Your highness?”

Liu Da and his cousin Sun Yi both turned; Liu Da only vaguely recognized the man, who bowed and said, “Excuse me, I meant Prince Sun Yi. Your sister Lady Sun, your highness, asked me to take you to her.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Sun Yi. “And you are?”

“My name is Fa Dian, my father is Lord Fa Zheng.”

“Which way is she?” asked Liu Da.

“In the Mandarin Duck pavilion, your highness.”

“Good, I’ll go the other way. Biaoge [cousin; mother's brother's son], can you come to my room tonight? We’ll play go or something.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Sun Yi, “you just want me to bring that wine I was talking about.”

“Can you blame me? I’m going to tell my father to change the Wu tribute to include wine from Kuaiji. That stuff is amazing.”

Sun Yi stretched and called over his shoulder as he followed Fa Dian, “Great, first you demand our women, now you want our wine as well.”

“How about you keep your women and double the wine,” Liu Da called back, then sighed, stretched as well, and began walking the other direction. The joke was hardly funny. At the banquet the previous day, he had actually tried to be nice to Ruhu. He could see the pleasure his new attitude gave his mother and aunt, but Ruhu had been immediately suspicious. After the banquet, when he had come to their guest wing to see Sun Yi, she had cornered him and wrenched out of him in less than five minutes the offer he had made to his father. It had developed into a screaming match. Ruhu seemed to think he had done it specifically to destroy her life; with rather shameless language, she had accused him of planning to fuck sluts non-stop while keeping her, his hated cousin-wife, practically in a cage. He had countered that he entirely expected her to sabotage and destroy everything he took pleasure in, no matter how innocent. Ruofeng, with her surprising strength, had to physically pull them apart from each other to end the argument.

Since then, she had given him the silent treatment; she even stared through him as if he wasn’t there. If they did get married, that the silent treatment would continue indefinitely was the best he could hope for.

As Liu Da turned a corner he thudded directly into a young woman, and she fell backward to the ground.

“Oh!” she apologized while he was still getting his bearings. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking…”

“No, I’m the one who wasn’t looking, please let me help you up,” Liu Da said, bending down to help her. “Are you alright, my lady?” He looked around for her companions, but saw no one. “Are you alone?”

“I got separated from my mother,” the young lady said. “Oh! Thank you so much.” This last because Liu Da had retrieved her fan from where it lay.

“Shall I help you find her, my lady?”

The young lady blushed a little, pulling her fan up to her chin. “I… sort of got separated on purpose,” she confessed. “It was so crowded, and my mother kept trying to introduce me to people… I… became a little overwhelmed… so many… so many important young men, here in the capital, and they were all so grand, and I know I didn’t impress even one of them… some of them were almost rude!… I just got to the point that I couldn’t stand to talk to any more important men… oh! Not, not including you, of course! You’ve been so pleasant and kind!”

Liu Da laughed. Not being recognized was a novel experience. He decided to go with it. “Maybe that’s because I’m no one important at all, my lady.”

She looked relieved to hear it. “The fireworks are very pretty, are they not? I was just trying to find a place where I could see them better.”

“I know just the place, my lady,” he said, offering her his arm, which she took trustingly. “May I ask your name?”

“It’s Sima Nanyang—and yours?”

“You can just call me A-Yao,” he said carelessly as he led her on. “Like I said, my lady, I’m nobody important.”

He brought her into the imperial family’s private gardens, using his key on the gate, and took her to a little artificial hill. As he expected, the view from there was perfect. Her delight at the spectacle rekindled his own interest in and amazement at it; it was a wondrous sight, wasn’t it?

Eventually a few minutes passed with no more explosions, and it seemed the show was over. He looked at the young lady. “Well, my lady, what did you think?”

“It was something I could not have even imagined,” she said, “I see why they call them smoke-flowers now. It was like… like paintings in the sky, but they lasted for only a moment, so it was as ephemeral as music.”

“That is a very poetic way to put it, my lady,” he said, smiling.

“I’m sure such beauty could make anyone speak poetically,” she said. “A-Yao, thank you so much for bringing me to this place to see them. I’m sure I could not have found such a perfect vantage point. Have you worked long in the gardens?”

Did she actually think he was a gardener? Well, that made a certain amount of sense with his use of the key; but his clothes! She must be a very sheltered girl; perhaps she thought all the imperial staff were as grandly dressed as the guards. If that was what she thought, the kind and respectful way she spoke to him was remarkable; there was no condescension in her at all. Liu Da knew of Sima Shi only glancingly, but he was a very proud man. “I work in the palace rather than the gardens,” he said, not exactly lying.

“Oh, I see! You must be very trusted, if they let you have the keys to the gardens as well. The emperor clearly has good sense in his choice of staff.”

Liu Da had felt utterly unworthy as he received the title of _taizi_ , crown prince, that day. “I am not at all sufficient to bear my responsibilities yet,” he answered, “but I hope to be someday. I greatly appreciate the emperor’s tolerance of my shortcomings.”

Her gaze seemed to shine with admiration at that; now he really did feel like a fraud, but it was too late to tell her who he really was. He only hoped that when she eventually figured it out, that she would not feel too embarrassed.

“I should find my mother now,” she said regretfully. “A-Yao, it was a magical evening. I will never forget today.”

“Neither will I, my lady.”

He took her out of the private gardens, locked the gate behind him, gave her directions to return to the main gate, and asked if she thought she could follow them.

“Oh I see! You must have duties to attend to. I hope I haven’t kept you from them?” she said, with some anxiety.

“No, the time I spent with you was my own,” he answered, “but you’re right that I have tasks calling me now, my lady.”

She opened up her purse, and he thought she was going to try to pay him and was trying to figure out the words to refuse, but instead she brought out a small brown object. “Please, before I go, take a look at this.”

He took it from her and brought it up close to his face to see it in the dim lantern light. It was a peach pit, carved into a flower-shaped bead with delicate skill. He laughed. “How charming, my lady.”

“I make them,” she said shyly. “I know it’s very silly, but they say it keeps away bad luck. Please keep it to remember me by. Goodbye, A-Yao!”

“Wait, my lady—”

But she was rushing off, probably afraid that he was going to try to refuse the gift. That hadn’t been his intention at all; he wanted to come clean about who he really was. But he would have to run and chase her to do so, and that had risks of drawing attention to them. As it was, this had been a rare, pure human interaction that was entirely his own and under no one’s scrutiny. He didn’t need the rose to remember her, but he was glad he had it all the same.

Liu Da looked again at the humble carved flower and slipped it into his pocket.

———

Zhang Chunhua was practically trembling with her fear, when she saw her husband with their daughter on his arm.

“What happened,” she breathed more than spoke when they were within range. “Did something happen?”

“Mother, I’m so sorry,” Nanyang said. “I got separated from you and then I got lost… and I got distracted by the fireworks. But when they were over a gardener told me how to find the main gate and that’s where father found me.”

“You got distracted by the fireworks?” said Chunhua. “You mean you stopped looking for me?”

Her daughter blushed deeply and looked ashamed. “I know, but… but they were so beautiful and I… I didn’t want to miss… it was wrong and selfish of me and I’m so sorry, mother…”

“Wrong and selfish,” Chunhua said, “that will do for a start; we’ll finish this at your brother’s home, once we find both of them; they are looking for you as well.”

In the palanquin across from her daughter, Chunhua was silent the entire ride home.

She took her husband’s whip from him when they entered Sima Shi's home. “Goodnight, husband. I will be with you shortly.”

“Chunhua…”

Chunhua was in no mood for that. Her look silenced him. “Kiss your father goodnight, Nanyang.”

Sima Shi and Sima Zhao allowed their mother and sister to kiss them each goodnight. Chunhua did not miss the looks they gave Nanyang; it only infuriated her further. So they all thought she was going too far, huh? Was she the only one in this family who cared for Nanyang’s future more than her temporary feelings?

She followed her daughter to her room, and was pleased, at least, that the girl made no further effort to plead once she closed the door, but rather removed her clothes and knelt in the proper position silently.

Nanyang didn’t cry out, either. Only when the punishment was over did she cling to her mother and weep.

“I know you are sorry,” said Chunhua gently, caressing her daughter’s face, “but you know I must make you _feel_ how painful the consequences can be, don’t you? It is never safe for a young lady to be alone in public. Reputations are as fragile and unrepairable as glass. The pain from your back will fade, but consider how it would be if something had gone very, very wrong? That is not something that would ever fade, darling.”

Nanyang kissed her mother’s face. “I know, mother. Thank you.”

“Get some rest,” Chunhua said. “We will have much to do this week.”

———

The morning after the coronation, Sima Shi had his weekly go match with Lord Zhuge Liang. They had played with no handicap, alternating white and black, since he was sixteen; the record was in Zhuge Liang’s favour overall, but the win percentage gap was narrowing.

“What do you think of the young ladies, A-Shi?” his foster-father said, during his own turn.

“Just the Wu ones, or all of them, my lord?”

“Start with the Wu ones.”

Sima Shi ran over them in his mind. “Princess Sun Ruhu of course must be mentioned first; she is in a class of her own. It is the fire in her spirit and the tiger in her soul; she makes an ordinary woman look like a cloth doll in comparison. Cunning, shrewd, witty, incisive, passionate… potentially fantastically loyal. However even more than her aunt, she is a woman who needs her loyalty won. If her husband isn’t the object of it, she will cause immense problems. I’m afraid I can’t imagine Xiao Jing’s quiet good qualities catching her eye, and she is a woman who requires a continual fight that he would not enjoy. Lady Gan Yufei, also, despite her outward beauty and delicacy, certainly requires a husband who is exceptionally talented in diplomacy and who has, somehow, gained her trust in his opinion; otherwise she will certainly cause some scandal that may end with everyone involved dead. Nearly any man would find Lady Lu Ruofeng an ideal wife, but I think she may be a little too reserved for Xiao Jing; he needs a more outgoing lady to help him. Lady Zhou Tianhua would suit him very well, I think. She is already very pretty and will only become more so; she is excellent in areas where Xiao Jing struggles, and she seems to value intellectual pursuits. I would recommend, my lord, that you arrange to observe them together and see how they interact.”

Zhuge Liang gestured to continue.

“Princess Liu Yitao could bear watching. Her high energy and her misbehaviour may mellow or find more appropriate outlets as she matures; on the other hand… well, it is not my place to so speculate about a princess. Lady Guan Meirong is a puzzle, very like her father. I knew her when she was a little younger, and found her then to be a very pleasant child. She doesn’t lack talent, that’s certain, and there is nothing to criticize in her actions; but she clearly has thoughts behind her eyes that do not exit her lips, at least where I ever heard them. Lord Guan Xing would be an active and attentive father-in-law, which could be excellent or deadly for his son-in-law… Lady Zhao Shanlin and her cousin Lady Ma Yingqi. I know neither well, but I know they care for nothing so much as horses. Out of the question for Xiao Jing, I’m sure my lord will agree.”

Zhuge Liang chuckled.

“Among those with ties to the former Cao Wei, Lady Wang Yuanji is talented, graceful, and efficient; I would count her as a possibility. Lady Guo Huai is as short as she is savage; do not even allow them to meet. Lady Xiahou Lian is weak in body and scarcely stronger in her spirit; she will certainly marry, with her lovely face, but let it be to some family that does not consider the long-term. And then… well, my lord, I cannot be supposed to speak without bias regarding my sister Nanyang, but—”

A stone clacked loudly as Zhuge Liang played it. This was considered a faux pas, but Zhuge Liang did not make that kind of faux pas accidentally, and thus for Sima Shi it interrupted him immediately. After a moment, Zhuge Liang pulled back his hand from the stone and said softly, “It is interesting to me that you assumed that I wanted your opinion for a match for my son.”

Sima Shi frowned. “Who else, my lord?”

“You are well past the age to begin finding a wife, A-Shi.”

For a moment, Sima Shi thought the prime minister was mocking him, but though he searched the older man’s face intently, he saw no trace of the smugness that should have been there. “A wife for me?”

“I have not brought up the matter before,” Zhuge Liang said calmly, “because it seemed evident to me that you wished to improve your standing so that you would be able to obtain a wife of quality. Self-controlled and far-sighted, exactly as I expected of you. But surely, after your performance in the north, you are now established enough for even the pickiest family. I let you go on because, once you had begun, I realized I would get a much better idea of your real opinion in this indirect way.” He smiled, and while the smile was not smug, it was amused. “The Wu princess, eh?”

How was it that Zhuge Liang could still fluster him, at his age? “She… I could never…”

“Oh, it will be an uphill endeavour, I admit. Sun Quan is exceptionally proud and jealous, the rest of his clan scarcely less so; and among us two privately, I will compliment you by revealing that I have enjoyed setting them off in my day. I might back you even if I didn’t like you, just for the amusement of seeing you accomplish it. I had noticed she admired you, but you have kept your own feelings hidden amazingly; even I, who know you so well, never guessed your feelings until just now.”

“She’s intended for the crown prince,” said Sima Shi, though his mouth had gone dry at the phrase _I had noticed she admired you._

Zhuge Liang didn’t answer, and after a moment he changed the topic. “I will arrange to throw my son and Lady Zhou together. That is a shrewd suggestion. Lady Zhang is obviously not ready to let her go, but neither is Xiao Jing ready to marry. In three or four years, it might be just the match for him.”

Sima Shi stared at the go board.

“We need not consider this match as part of our win-loss record, A-Shi,” Zhuge Liang said.

Sima Shi played a stone. “I would rather my record be my record, my lord.”

“Excellent,” said Zhuge Liang, and played a stone.


	5. 司馬昭之心，路人皆知 (You're not fooling anybody.)

司馬昭之心，路人皆知： _Sima Zhao zhi xin, luren jie zhi_  
_in charge of / horse / clear, obvious / 's / heart, street / people / all / know_  
_"Everyone on the street knows what's on Sima Zhao's mind (ie usurping the throne); you're not fooling anybody."_

“Why are we having another matchmaking event?” groaned Prince Sun Yi. “I thought that was what the fireworks thing was for last night. Don’t tell me there’s going to be another one after this.”

“It is not a matchmaking event,” said General Zhang frostily. “It is simply that we need the future leaders of the south and the future leaders of the empire to interact and know—”

“Is everyone else ready for the matchmaking event?” Lady Guan Yinping sang out as she swanned into the room with her daughter on her arm.

Prince Sun Yi gestured triumphantly to Lady Guan, Princess Sun Ruhu snickered, and even Queen Lianshi smiled and put her hand to her mouth.

“Yinping,” Xingcai said with exasperation.

“What? They’re not stupid, Tangjie [female cousin],” said Yinping to Xingcai. “I think it’ll be much easier to get them happy about it if we don’t insult their intelligence.”

Zhou Shen and Gan Yufei came in at that point. They were both perfectly dressed for the occasion, but Lady Gan looked mutinous.

“Lady Gan,” said General Zhang sharply.

Lady Gan looked at General Zhang, and what can only be described as a stare-down commenced. Neither said a word. As the seconds ticked on, Lady Gan’s defiant air wavered, then shattered. She looked down, looked back up, and looked down again and hugged herself.

“Do I make myself clear?” said General Zhang.

“Yes, ma’am,” said Lady Gan, cowed.

“Good. Let’s go,” General Zhang finished, with more of an air of calling a division to battle than of taking young people to find spouses.

———

The emperor had extended an invitation to various important families that just so happened to have unmarried children of eligible age, and they had turned out in force to a wing of the palace that contained a perfect blend of open spaces and quiet corners for observing and intriguing. The official host was the crown prince; the presence of the emperor himself, with the forced courtesies that involved, would have been too dampening.

Despite having been frightened into a non-verbal promise not to misbehave, there was no way that Gan Yufei would have done anymore than simply be silent and withdrawn, except for what happened at the exact moment when she first entered the largest hall, where the biggest crowd was gathered.

Lady Guo Huai, the niece of former Cao Wei general Guo Huai, with her back turned to the door, was making an attempt to show how unruffled she was by the southern beauties.

“Lady Gan?” she was laughing, with her fan held up to her face. “Oh! I suppose she is beautiful, if you like _southern_ manners. They say her mother was even lovelier in her day; but I suppose—” and here she hushed her voice, but in a way that it was still very much audible—“given all one hears about Lord Gan Ning, it’s her good luck that she doesn’t resemble him more.”

“Oh no,” said Lady Gan, in her sweetest voice, “I actually resemble him very much!”

Lady Guo Huai and those who were listening to her turned, and Lady Gan continued, just as sweetly, “I’m afraid that while you have heard of me, I haven’t any idea who you are. Please, I must make all of your acquaintances!”

There was no arena in which Gan Yufei wasn’t determined to come out number one if she met a challenger; if she was being challenged on her desirability, then she’d collect as many hearts as she could that afternoon. And to insult the south and her father at the same time? Oh, she’d collect hearts. She’d collect them from their chests with a dull knife.

———

“It is always so pleasant to see Lady Zhang in command,” came the soft voice of Zhuge Liang.

General Zhang turned and bowed, as he bowed in return. “Good day, my lord. I do what I can to assist the queen and our prime minister, no matter how small the task.”

“Oh, don’t denigrate yourself,” he said, coming to stand at her side. “It was meant with all sincerity. The test of a general is her ability to restore the morale of her troops, especially when the situation is critical, and from what I observe today, you have performed something of a miracle in this regard.”

Xingcai laughed. “I would be more sure of myself if I were commanding them in a real battle, my lord.”

“Hm.” The crane fan waved slowly. “I hear your daughter is musically inclined.”

“Yes, a little.”

“What does she play?”

“She has brought a _pipa_ and an ocarina. She also plays the _guzheng,_ the _zhu_ , the hand harp, the end-blown flute—”

“So many? And you say ‘a little’? Lady Zhang, there is modesty and then there is lying.” He smiled. “What about the _guqin_?”

“Ah, yes, that as well. I’m not trying to lie and call her untalented, but her interest is so varied, she plays everything only a little. She says that her enjoyment of hearing the instrument increases vastly when she knows the basics of how to play, and so she wishes to learn as many as she can. Perhaps I should have forced her more to focus, but it seemed harmless. She has so far to go, my lord, but then she is only fourteen; scarcely more than a child.”

“You must bring her to my humble home before you return to the south,” he sad. “I have made somewhat of a collection of instruments that I would be pleased to show her.”

“That is very kind, my lord… I will have to see if the queen can spare me, of course.”

“Of course, of course. It would be a great favour to me a little of your daughter’s enthusiasm for music would rub off onto my son. If he were here today, I would ask her to do so now.”

“Master Zhuge Jing isn’t here? I hope he’s not ill.”

“Oh no, but I felt no need for him to come to this kind of event. Personally, I don’t think any man should marry before nineteen at the earliest, ideally twenty; and I find long betrothals create too many issues. Better to make decisions much closer to the execution, in that as in most things.” Zhuge Liang looked a little past her. “I see someone to whom I must speak. Do send me a message with your availability when you can, Lady Zhang.”

“Of course, my lord.” She bowed, and went over his words again as he passed by. She was not herself a strategist, but she knew the diplomatic arts of giving and receiving messages, so she understood very well that Zhuge Liang had replied to her unspoken message of _Back off my daughter!_ with _I won’t take her from you now, but would you be willing to give her up in three or four years? In the meantime, I merely wish to observe her a little._

Three or four years… She wasn’t fooled by the surface of what he said. Zhuge Liang absolutely made long-term plans, including in this. But he was making an implicit promise not to pressure _her_ for a decision.

She would tell the queen she actually did want to go, instead of telling her to claim she needed Xingcai too much, she decided.

———

The pink lips of Lady Gan Yufei were almost touching the earlobe of Princess Sun Ruhu as she whispered to her. The Wu princess laughed, and brought up her fan with a snap as she whispered back. Above the fan, Lady Gan’s flawless eyes sparkled.

It was an absolutely riveting picture, as the ladies intended it to be. Young men who had ridden at the front lines of battle or faced the stress of the final civil service examination were left slack-jawed and hesitant in the face of it.

As smoothly as swans among lesser birds, the two Wu women glided across the room and suddenly flanked Sima Shi, who alone amongst the people in the room had his back to Lady Gan.

“An ambush,” Sima Shi said, looking down to either side. “I see how it is. Tell me, should I get some water to prepare for your fire attack?”

“Surely someone as experienced in battle as Master Sima Shi can recognize a pincer attack,” said Princess Ruhu.

“You see I told her highness that I was too afraid to approach you, and she offered to reinforce me,” Lady Gan said. “Now I have superior numbers.”

“Your reconnaissance is faulty,” Sima Shi said. “Don’t you see I have allies here with me? It is you who are outnumbered.”

“Don’t bring us into it,” said Fa Dian, and Sima Zhao laughed. “Besides, you’re going to need us later for reinforcements when you’re attacked by every other man in this room.”

“Hm. Perhaps I should negotiate. What do you want, villains?”

Lady Gan placed her hand delicately on the outside arm of Sima Shi. “I am told that Master Sima Shi never admires _any_ ladies. I would like it _very_ much if you would take a walk with me.”

He shifted, took her hand off his arm, and kissed the tips of her fingers, while saying softly, “A walk past a certain lady, perhaps?”

“Ah, I see, you do admire me,” Lady Gan said audaciously, and Sima Shi laughed.

“For your ambition and tactical instincts only,” he said, while just as audaciously making it evident that he was practically ogling her. He then offered her his arm and the two walked off.

“You’re going to have to tell me your name again,” Princess Ruhu said to Fa Dian. “I did warn you.”

“So you did, your highness,” said Fa Dian, with no evidence of offence. “Fa Dian, son of Fa Zheng.”

“And you,” she said to a young man leaning against the wall, “I haven’t met you, have I?”

“Me?” the young man, who had been listening to the goings on with a sardonic smile, widened his eyes. “Ah… it’s Jia Chong, son of Jia Kui, your highness. But, ah, I’m not… I’m not with these gentlemen.”

“Oh? A spy then! How very exciting. Your name I will remember, then.” She manhandled Sima Zhao into widening the circle such that Jia Chong would feel socially pressured to step forward into it. “But who is it that is your target, Master Jia Chong? If you are spying on me, you can report that I am an excellent hostess; look at how well I draw people together. Zhao Ge [brother Zhao], allow me to present to you Master Jia Chong. Master Jia Chong, this is Master Sima Zhao, son of Lord Sima Yi.”

Jia Chong and Sima Zhao bowed to each other, Jia Chong mock grave, and Sima Zhao laughing.

“You forget me in front of my very face,” said Fa Dian mournfully, “You are heartless, your highness.”

“By no means, Master Fa Dian! I need your battle experience. Have you ever interrogated a spy? We must find Master Jia Chong out.”

“I am observing no particular target,” Jia Chong said. “I came to please my father, who is old and ill.”

“How very filial of you, but in that case, you should surely take a more active approach to finding a wife rather than just stand against a wall listening.”

Jia Chong shrugged. “I am only just twenty. I do not intend to rush into a marriage headlong, simply because my father would prefer to be alive for my wedding. If I made a bad choice, and then she mourned my father with me, the law would refuse me to put her aside for the rest of my life; it’s too big of a risk. When I have mourned my father, then I will marry.”

“You are very risk averse, I see, but what if you came across a woman who was too good a chance to miss?”

Jia Chong smiled. “There is always another woman, your highness.”

“Master Jia Chong is too cold,” the princess complained. “Master Fa Dian, I am dying with eagerness to be introduced to Lady Guan Meirong.”

Fa Dian looked shocked at this sudden subject change. “You want me to take you to her, your highness?”

“You and no other,” she declared. “Master Jia Chong has chilled me to the bone, and I intend to warm myself by doing a good deed for you.”

Fa Dian was flustered as the princess masterfully took his arm and led him away.

“A somewhat strange way to be introduced,” Jia Chong mused, “but from what I have overheard, I would be glad to know you better.”

Sima Zhao chuckled. “Sure, I’m not here for the main event either, so we might as well talk.”

———

Sima Nanyang was alone again, but this time she had been set there and told to wait by her mother, so she knew she was alright. She was in a long, long corridor that opened to the various rooms and halls where people were mingling. It also had alcoves recessed along the walls between the windows with interesting carvings, and she was passing the time by contemplating these. A great deal of Luoyang’s original architecture had been lost all those years ago when Dong Zhuo had set fire to much of Luoyang, but these stone alcoves had survived.

As she entered an alcove with a carving of a dragon, she heard an intake of breath very near, and looked to the right, startled. Her eyes lit up. “A-Yao!”

The man she did not realize was crown prince Liu Da was standing within the alcove, hidden within a little angled section such that he was not visible from the hall itself; only if you stepped into the main part of the alcove, where she was, could he be seen.

“Lady Sima,” he said, surprised.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, joyfully, then, more unsure, “Are you on duty? Am I bothering you?”

“I…” He was staring at her face, almost searching it. She tilted her own head in puzzlement, and he laughed in an embarrassed way. “Ah, sort of, but you’re not keeping me from anything. I… I just need to stay here. You’re definitely not bothering me, my lady.”

“What an interesting little nook!” she said, looking at the recess within the recess that he had ensconced himself in.

“These sorts of places are all over the palace,” he said, with a smile. “Most of the time, they have guards hidden in them. That’s part of why you have to assume you’re usually being overheard within the palace.”

“How interesting! What can you see from within there, though? Or is it just to hear?”

“Have a look yourself, my lady.”

Liu Da pulled himself out of the recess and put a gentlemanly hand on her upper back to guide her in, but recoiled when the firm but gentle touch made her hiss and reflexively shrink, like touching the wound of an animal.

“I’m… I’m so sorry!” she stammered, not meeting his eyes. “I just have… I injured my back and…”

She was dressed in a very loose and flowing ice blue _hanfu;_ with decisive action, he put his hand to the back of her dress, ignored her startled exclamation, and pulled the fabric back enough for him to look down at the top of her shoulders, where the marks from the horsetail whip could be seen.

When he looked back at her face, it was burning with shame.

“Who did that to you?” he demanded, very low.

“I brought it on myself,” she told the floor, “I did something very wrong and I needed to be punished. But I will never do such a selfish thing again.” She dared to glance up at him, and cringed at the anger she still saw there. “I’ll… I’ll go.”

“No, don’t go,” he said. “I’m sorry, it’s not my place. I understand. Parents are like that, right?”

She interpreted this vague phrase in accordance with her own philosophy, and brightened a little. “Yes, of course.”

He smiled back. “Are you enjoying yourself today, my lady?”

“Well… well the art is very beautiful,” she said, and laughed with a bit of guilt. “A man came up to my mother almost right away, and she was very pleased and told me to wait in the hall, and I’ve just been looking at these alcoves. Isn’t it amazing at how something made of stone can seem about to leap from the wall?”

“You’ve been spared rude men at least, then,” he teased.

She laughed, “Yes, I have… oh! And as we came in I saw the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life! Have you seen her? I think she must be Lady Gan; I had heard how beautiful she was, but I doubted it. But I should not have! She truly is as beautiful as they say!”

“Yes, I’ve seen her.”

“Isn’t she breathtaking? I feel like I’ve seen a fairy or a goddess. I’ve always thought it was silly how the old stories would say that a woman was so beautiful that she made fish forget to swim or birds forget to fly, but when I looked at her, I thought it might be possible. Do you think the crown prince will marry her?”

“I would say it’s very unlikely, my lady,” he said dryly.

“Really? I suppose it must be true then, the rumour that he will marry the Wu princess.”

Liu Da sighed. “Yes, it is.”

“I have never seen her… nor have I seen the crown prince, except from _very_ far away at the coronation… I hoped I might be able to see them today, but I suppose, if the matter is already settled, then neither of them are here.”

Liu Da didn’t answer for a minute, and then said, “Do you really want to meet the crown prince?”

She laughed. “Doesn’t every young girl dream of meeting a prince?”

He laughed too. “Do you really?”

“Not really, not very much, at least… but still, it would be something to say that I had met the future emperor. I am trying not to hope too much for it. My mother says I daydream too much as it is.”

“Suppose you let yourself dream,” he said. “Would you want to marry a prince?”

“Oh… well…” she blushed furiously and resorted to holding her fan in front of her face.

“Just as a dream,” he coaxed.

“Well… if I married a prince, then my family wouldn’t have to be in disgrace anymore,” she admitted hesitantly.

“Even in a dream, that’s what you think of?” he said. “Is your family really in disgrace?”

She nodded, looking at the top rim of her fan. “My big brothers were both taken away from my parents,” she said, “and it broke my mother’s heart. That is why she is so very, very protective of me. And I know it will be very hard for any of us to make good matches. If I married a prince… everyone would say the Sima were alright again, wouldn’t they?”

“I guess they would,” he said, and then added a moment later, “my lady.”

“Have you seen the crown prince?”

Liu Da nodded.

“What is he like?”

“I… I… it’s not my place to say,” he said finally.

She frowned. “As bad as that? I suppose it figures. You, and my brothers, seem to be the only kind men in Luoyang…”

He didn’t say anything for a long time, he just looked at her face, and she looked at his, and suddenly realized her heart was beating faster.

“Nanyang?”

The voice came from the hall, and Nanyang immediately stepped forward into the hall. “I’m here, mother!”

“The prince asked your brother to be introduced to you,” Lady Zhang said triumphantly. “Come quickly.”

Her mother turned and walked back into the room she had come out of.

Nanyang glanced over at the alcove; no trace of Liu Da could be seen. She raised her hand in a farewell gesture and hurried after her mother.

———

“My God,” Princess Sun Ruhu said softly to Lu Ruofeng, “Yufei really _does_ like killing people. This is a massacre.”

Lady Gan Yufei had swept through the gathered elite with the devastating power of a fox spirit, leaving behind her a wake of enraptured or stunned men and awestruck or infuriated women. Her display with Sima Shi had actually caused Lady Guo Huai to miss her footing on a step and fall on her face in front of everyone.

Princess Ruhu and Ruofeng were standing together at one end of a very large hall. At the other end, Lady Gan Yufei was the scintillating vortex of an entire typhoon of interest.

Even Prince Sun Yi, who in general was more attracted to men than to women, laughed a little as he heard his twin sister and said, “She almost makes me wish they had caught her when she’s like this. I’d keep her in chains for an entirely different reason.”

“What reason?” Ruofeng asked, puzzled, while his sister said, “You’re disgusting,” at the same time.

“If you were really the type to find it so disgusting, you’d have the same reaction as Ruofeng, my dear Jiejie [big sister],” Sun Yi sang.

“Where were you, anyway?”

“Oh, Zhao Ge asked me if I’d make a show of being interested in his sister, in a non-committal way, of course. It’ll make her mother excited and raise her profile generally, if a prince seems interested. I mean, it’s the least I can do for him, since it doesn’t cost me a thing.” Prince Sun Yi stretched. “Anybody seen Liu Da?”

“Who?” said Princess Ruhu coldly.

“Oh, come off it. Why don’t you just tell mother that you refuse?”

“Because—” she stopped.

“Yeah, because you think refusing an actual formal request would be offensive and disastrous for Wu. So you’re being obnoxious and hoping that it scares Liu Da off from making the request, but it won’t. He’s going to do what’s best for the empire, no matter how personally unhappy it makes him. You’d better stop acting like such a bitch to him, Jiejie, and I’m serious. If you don’t want to marry him, put your brain to work finding a better match for him and a better match for you, or else start learning to get along with him.” He started to stroll off. “I’m gonna go see if he wants to get drunk.”

———

“Biaoge [older male cousin, mother’s side],” came a soft voice as Sun Yi strolled down the hall.

Sun Yi looked at the empty alcove and blinked, then widened his eyes when the crown prince’s head appeared. Then he laughed, and leaned in to whisper, “Are you seriously hiding from Ruhu?”

“You don’t get it,” Liu Da whispered back. “Either she’s going to obviously shun me or she’s going to get into a fight with me. Either way, I look bad, and she looks bad, and Wu looks bad, and the empire looks weak.”

“I do get it, man. I think it’s been long enough that we can safely stroll out if we look confident enough doing it. Everybody has their tongues out over Yufei, anyway. I don’t know why she’s decided it’s time to show she can have any man she wants, but she’s turned it on something fierce.”

“Alright. Let’s go out that way.”

———

They ducked into the Wu wing to grab a couple bottles of the fine wine from Kuaiji that Sun Yi had brought and then went to Liu Da’s rooms.

“Did you really ask to be introduced to Lady Sima?” Liu Da said, taking a chair in his sitting room with a bottle and a cup at a table.

Sun Yi was reclining back onto a couch and drank directly from a bottle. “Hmm? Oh, her. Yeah, Sima Zhao asked me if I would help her out. If I act like I’m interested in a girl, it might raise her profile; plus apparently her mother is mad at her for getting separated from her at the fireworks. Northern mothers are crazy protective, huh? Wonder what they think of how our girls run around. Even my father wouldn’t blink an eye at Ruhu taking a walk in the gardens by herself.”

Liu Da was glad Sun Yi was staring at the ceiling and he didn’t have to worry about hiding the stricken look on his face. _He_ was the reason that Nanyang—Lady Sima—had been whipped?

“Figured it was the least I could do for him after he handled that whole fiasco with Yufei so well. I didn’t tell you, but I nearly fucked it up that night. I tried to offer them my ring to let Yufei go; then they really would have had proof we were there.”

“You didn’t tell me the whole story about that yet.”

Sun Yi recounted it, then said, “You know, now I get why they claimed Yufei was actually a man. We pulled our hits, she didn’t. All their worst injuries were from her. They probably didn’t want to admit that a girl could kick their asses so bad.”

“You know Sima Zhao pretty well then, huh?”

“Well, he lived with us for like a year when me and Ruhu were like three and we always adored him, you know. Even then he was the kind of guy who makes you feel like you’re lucky to spend time with him. We probably would have forgotten about him except that whenever Yufei and her brother tagged along with Gan Ning to Jianye, they would brag about him. And when he came back to Jianye when I was about fourteen, he was even cooler than we thought he’d be.” He sighed. “I’d totally fuck him if he had eyes for anyone but Ruofeng.”

Liu Da laughed at Sun Yi’s flippantly expressed lust. “If he’s that into her why doesn’t he make a move? She’s almost nineteen.”

“Oh, you don’t even know the half of it. She’s just as bad about him. I’ll tell you, when they announced this trip, I was sure that this would was going to be the push that would finally make him make a move, but… ugh. Ruhu and Yufei have started really trying to get them together, but I think they should leave it alone. I’ll say one thing about Sima Zhao, he’s not stupid, and he never does things for no reason. And you know, Ruofeng can be oblivious, but she’s not really stupid either. She probably figures that if Sima Zhao really wanted to marry her then he’d make a move, but he hasn’t so he doesn’t.” He swigged from the bottle. “Like, I wish them well and everything but it’s their own business. Ruhu and Yufei should spend more time worrying about their own marriages, you know?”

Liu Da chuckled. “What about your own marriage?”

“Psh. I’m only eighteen, and I got an older brother, three nephews, and two younger brothers; I’m off the hook, Liu Da,” Sun Yi said smugly. “I gotta say, the idea of marrying Yufei at some point is growing on me, though. She was hilarious today, and I think she’d be fine with me, uh, having my own life, y’know. And our kids would be hot as fuck. Maybe in a year or two I’ll see what she thinks, if she’s still single.”

———

This annihilation of the north was _too_ easy. Yufei got bored.

She claimed a headache and threw herself onto the bosom of the queen, knowing both that the still elegant Queen Lianshi would make a lovely backdrop for her expression of suffering nobly borne, and that the kind-hearted woman would immediately escort Yufei back to her rooms to rest.

With Lady Gan’s sudden departure, the people left behind were drifting as if awakening from an enchantment.

Sima Zhao and Jia Chong, who had been chatting, were suddenly joined by a third man, about their age, with a regal air and a long, thin ponytail trailing down his back.

“Master Jia Chong,” said the man, “I had not realized you were here in Luoyang. How is your father?”

“A little worse than before, I would say, and yours?”

“He is here, talking to the Wu chancellor on my behalf,” the man said smugly. “And your friend is…?”

Sima Zhao bowed as Jia Chong said, “This is Master Sima Zhao, the son of Lord Sima Yi. Master Sima Zhao, this is Master Zhong Hui, the son of Lord Zhong Yao.”

Zhong Hui slightly inclined his head forward. “Oh yes, I have heard of you. I understand you spent a great deal of your youth in the house of Lady Gan. That must have been a trial on your restraint. She is the most exquisite female I have ever beheld.”

“Me?!” Sima Zhao laughed. “No, Yufei’s far too much my sister for that. She’s literally bitten my ankles!”

“As a child, I hope,” Jia Chong laughed.

“She was a little demon of a child,” Sima Zhao laughed back. “She drew blood! I probably still have scars there. She was about four years old and went through a phase of wanting to be a shark.”

Zhong Hui made a little ahem, and Sima Zhao saw that the man was irritated that he was no longer in control of the conversation. Zhong Hui retook that control, saying, “You shake my faith in your strategy, Master Jia Chong. I believe you spent the entire time here against this wall. While the masses were salivating over Lady Gan, the families of other eligible ladies were ripe for the picking.”

“If your father is speaking to the Wu chancellor, I suppose you’re referring to Lady Lu Ruofeng,” said Jia Chong.

“Among others, yes. I think I do not speak too highly of myself to say that I believe I may yet win one particular lady.” Here he gave his smuggest smile yet. “However, should my preferred choices be impossible, Lady Lu Ruofeng may do, I think. I could be persuaded to accept her.”

Sima Zhao did not usually experience difficulty controlling his face, but the idea that Ruofeng would be married to a man who thought she was _tolerable_ tested his control to the extreme.

“I hope your father is not speaking to hers with such terms, for your sake,” said Jia Chong. “What’s so lacking in her? Before today, I heard her spoken of as possibly the most desirable bride available.”

“What, her? By who? Fools, I suppose. Her height, if nothing else, ought to make any wise man reconsider.”

“Many men prefer short women,” said Jia Chong.

“Only men who are insecure about themselves seek out short women,” said Zhong Hui loftily, “which proves them fools. A short female will give you short sons; it is a simple fact of nature. However, Lady Lu’s maternal grandfather, by all accounts, was a very tall man, so perhaps all is not lost there. Perfection cannot exist in a female, anyway; I am wise enough to realize I must accept that they all have flaws.”

“I am sure your future wife will appreciate that,” said Jia Chong.

“What about you, Master Sima Zhao?” said Zhong Hui. “Do any of the ladies please you?”

Sima Zhao forced a laugh. “I only came here to see my family. I’m in no rush to get married.”

———

“Zhong Hui? You’re kidding me. He has a rat tail hanging off the back of his head.”

Ruofeng, who had just been bashfully telling Princess Ruhu about the pretty things Zhong Hui had said to and about her, looked over at Sima Zhao in some surprised. “Zhao Ge! I didn’t know you were here; aren’t you going back to your family today?”

“I will soon, I just need to talk with your father first,” he said. “You can’t really have been flattered by the things Zhong Hui was saying, though?”

“You don’t think he meant them?” Ruofeng said, slightly deflating.

“That guy would only mean a compliment he was giving himself,” Sima Zhao said. “He just wanted you to tell him how well-spoken and kind he was, and I bet you did.”

“Lord Lu Xun will see you, Master Sima Zhao,” said a servant.

Sima Zhao had his hands in his pockets when he walked in the room Lu Xun was using as an office, a bad diplomatic habit that he had been broken of years back. Lord Lu Xun glanced at the hands, but smiled and said nothing as Sima Zhao sat down.

“Well, I assume you know why I asked you to come by afterwards.”

Sima Zhao reported, as a civil servant of Wu, on all the intelligence he had gathered, especially from speaking and listening at the event. He took _great_ pleasure in laying out Zhong Hui’s horrible dismissals of Ruofeng’s value directly to her father.

At the end, Lu Xun said, “Is that all you wish to say to me?”

Sima Zhao looked at Lu Xun.

Lu Xun looked at Sima Zhao.

Sima Zhao breathed in and out. “My lord, I believe you know my thoughts and feelings. You’ve been… Wu has been… I don’t want to be ungrateful to you, I won’t be ungrateful to you. You can rely on that.”

Lu Xun tilted his head. “What would be ingratitude?”

It took effort, but Sima Zhao kept eye contact. “Lady Lu admires me only for the way I behave as your protege, for the exposure I have had to her from your kind inclusion of me into the life of your house. It would be many things, among them ungrateful, to take advantage of that and attempt to leverage her admiration into an unequal marriage.”

“I understand,” said Lu Xun. “That’s all for today, I think. Do come and find me if there’s anything I need to hear.”

Sima Zhao bowed.

———

Sima Yi had spent the event time period meeting with Lord Guan Xing and Lord Ma Chao for an introductory discussion of an overall strategy approach to the issues along the northern border. Mostly, it was a discussion between Guan Xing and Sima Yi, with Ma Chao listening and not interrupting, so that was fine.

He arrived home for dinner to a wife radiant with success and a daughter who was pleased to see him, which touched him. As for his sons, Sima Shi looked as if he kept remembering jokes, whereas Sima Zhao looked as if he was remembering insults. It must have been quite an afternoon.

Chunhua of course had her say first. “I was almost immediately spoken to, husband. Lord Jiang Wei expressed a certain amount of interest, although he was apprehensive about her age. Then there was Zhong Yao—I think at one time you told me you admired his writing; he has an unmarried son, quite a young one, too, considering his own age. And then, Prince Sun Yi actually requested to be introduced to our Nanyang! He was very charming and quite overt in his interest, though not in an inappropriate way, I reassure you, my lord. I could tell right away how many others became curious of this girl who had attracted the Wu prince.”

“Very good,” said Sima Yi.

“And it wasn’t just Nanyang who gathered interest,” Chunhua continued. “Lady Li spoke to me about my sons for quite some time.”

This was clearly news to Sima Shi, who paused before his chopsticks reached his mouth. “She did, mother?”

“Oh yes. I met and spoke with her daughters. Lady Guan Meirong, of course, you must remember.”

“She brought little Mingxue to this?” Sima Shi said, a little faintly.

“Lady Guan Mingxue is about the same age as Nanyang,” Chunhua reproved. “I think Lady Li approves of you very much, A-Shi, and she was glad to meet A-Zhao, too.”

Sima Shi put the food on his chopsticks into his mouth.

“Is that what that was about?” said Sima Zhao.

Chunhua was in too good of a humour to easily be swayed out of it. She smiled indulgently. “My dear boys. I am so glad I can finally manage things for you.”

“You sound as though you were in your element, my dear,” said Sima Yi, smiling as he glanced from one son to the other.

“And I have not yet told you all. The Wu queen herself approached me—probably because of the interest shown by her son. She and her daughter are as different as night from day.”

“The Wu princess was with her?” Sima Yi said to his wife, though his eyes were on Sima Shi.

“Oh yes.” Chunhua laughed. “We had a marvellous conversation. I don’t care what anyone says, I am entirely looking forward to Princess Ruhu becoming empress.” She paused, and after a beat, said, “Oh, there was also the Wu chancellor. He allowed me to talk to him, but I am not at all sure how he took my promotion of you, A-Shi.”

Sima Zhao choked a bit on a piece of bitter melon, and Chunhua sighed.

“A-Zhao, I see you never got over your habit of eating too fast. You will make a liar of poor Lord Lu Xun. All the lovely things he said about your development as a diplomat. And don’t think I don’t see you slouching.”

Sima Zhao straightened up. “Yes, mother. Sorry, mother.”

Sima Yi could see that Chunhua could easily get onto to an entire litany of A-Zhao’s faults, so he decided to redirect the topic to something more pleasant. “What about you, Nanyang? Did anyone impress you?”

“Oh!” Nanyang coloured a bit, but that was typical of the anxious girl whenever she was addressed by anyone. “Oh, well… actually, I thought Lady Gan Yufei was extremely beautiful!”

Sima Yi chuckled as his sons glanced at their sister between them with affection. “I see. None of the men impressed you as a possibility for a future husband?”

Nanyang was very rosy now. “Father… I am sure that… mother will choose the right man for me.”

“Don’t be too coy,” Sima Yi cautioned, “every human has desires; you won’t share yours with your father?”

“I only hope that he is kind, father,” she said quietly, and took a bite of bitter melon.

“So? Did any of them strike you as kind?”

“Ah…” Nanyang put a hand on her own shoulder. “Not… not really.”

“Is your back bothering you, darling?” said Chunhua, laying down her spoon. “Come with me, I’ll put more ointment on it.”

“Thank you, mother,” said Nanyang, with a wide, grateful smile.


End file.
